ASLA UTAH SEPTEMBER 2023 NEWSLETTER

UPCOMING EVENTS

**PIKUS TOUR - Lunch & Learn 1 CEU Approved - 3-D Poly Grout** Thursday, October 5th, 2:30pm - 4:30pm Pikus 3D Lab - 9573 S 6400 W., West Jordan **REGISTER HERE** **(Space limited to 18)**

**YOU’RE INVITED! 2023 ASLA UT Annual Awards Event** **Sponsored by Berliner** Friday, October 6th, 6:00pm - 8:00pm **The Shop,** ***350 E 400 S, (3rd Floor), Salt Lake*** **REGISTER HERE**

**PlaySpace Designs Lunch & Learn** Friday, October 20th, 12:00pm ASLA UT Office 270 S 400 W, SLC **REGISTER HERE**

**2023 Southern Utah Green Conference** Wednesday, November 1st, 8:30am – 4:20pm Dixie Convention Center, St. George. **REGISTER HERE**

**LuckyDog Recreation Lunch & Learn** Monday, November 13th, 12:00pm ASLA UT Office 270 S 400 W, SLC **REGISTER HERE**

**GreenBlue Urban- LACES Virtual Seminar** Wednesday, November 15th, 12:00pm **REGISTER HERE**

**ASLA 2023 National Conference** October 27th-30th - Minneapolis, MN **REGISTER HERE**

Leadership Express

Jake Powell, ASLA Utah President

All of you know that what appears on the surface is an edifice that masks countless details that are happening behind the scenes and just below the surface. That is definitely the case with the ASLA, at a national and state level the ASLA is working diligently behind the scenes on a myriad of issues that help protect and enhance the profession of landscape architecture. This month there has been a lot going on behind the scenes that I wanted to make you aware of.

The ASLA Utah Executive Committee has been working behind the scenes for decades to educate and advocate for landscape architecture here in our state. However, these efforts are difficult or often impossible to do adequately amid all of our busy lives. As you can imagine, opportunities to proactively advocate often happen at meetings held during the workday or at events those of us just doing our work are never aware of. The 2023 Utah Legislative Session brought to light that not only does our profession need to be at those meetings to defend our work, but we need to be at those meetings to proactively advocate for, and influence policies that relate to our work.

This month the Utah ASLA Executive Committee has been discussing how to get more actively engaged in the political arena here in Utah. We quickly realized that we lacked the expertise and time required to effectively advocate at the Utah capital, so we made the significant decision to contract with Dave Kallas, a Utah lobbyist to assist us in working behind the scenes to help us defend the profession of landscape architecture and identify areas within our state code and laws where landscape architects are either left out, or our work should be recognized.

This decision has already changed the game with regard to advocacy. It has been a busy month as we have worked to bring Dave up to speed and craft a strategy leading into the 2024 Utah legislative session. Like most things, so much of politics is about relationships, and he has helped us connect with many people we would have never known about. His efforts helped us bring some key people out for a site tour that helped us share that landscape architecture is much more than what they may know and a profession that is going to be critical to Utah’s future.

The ASLA Utah Executive Committee unanimously felt that Dave’s efforts will be critical in our advocacy efforts this year and in years to come. However, like any professional consultant who brings expertise to a project, that expertise comes at a cost. Luckily, previous ASLA leadership has been very prudent and we had sufficient funds in our account to cover the immediate expense. However, our leadership team will be looking for ways to cover the ongoing costs because his expertise will likely be an ongoing need as we look to grow support for our work with those making important decisions that will determine the validity of the profession.

As I have said before, we need to share what we do and the impact of our work. The ASLA Utah Chapter is doing that more than ever, even though it is behind the scenes. We need your support as we support what you do.

Advocacy Event - Church Office Building Plaza Tour

Thomas Eddington, VP of Advocacy

This week, ASLA Utah invited Utah State Senators, Representatives, and Governor's Cabinet to participate in a tour of the newly designed and constructed Church Office Building Plaza in downtown Salt Lake City. The intent was not only to display this wonderful new project but also ensure this influential group of leaders learned a bit more about the field of landscape architecture.

Bryce Ward welcomed the group and then ASLA Utah President, Jake Powell, addressed the attendees before introducing Cory Schupe of Blu Line Designs. Cory led a tour of his team’s work that resulted in a redesign of this plaza, a showcase for the millions of visitors that walk through this beautiful space every year. Cory explained the firm’s design ideology as well as the extent of the efforts associated with the plaza redesign and discussed some of the challenges associated with the project. The discussions with the tour guests centered around the critical role Landscape Architects play in designing projects that enhance the health, welfare and safety of our communities while also protecting our environment. Cory emphasized the efforts to incorporate water and energy saving measures into the design – his team achieved a greater than 30% reduction in water use for the plaza based on their expertise of waterwise design and plant selection.

Efforts to educate and advocate for the Landscape Architect profession have been top of mind this year and the new lobbyist, Dave Kallas, was instrumental in helping create and promote this advocacy tour behind the scenes. This event is the first of a few planned events designed to present the field of landscape architecture to elected officials statewide. ASLA Utah believes it is critically important for our Chapter to continue to advocate for the profession, increase our visibility in the state, and preserve the licensing requirement to practice our profession in the state of Utah.

If you have a project that you believe demonstrates the breadth of the field of landscape architecture and would consider coordinating with ASLA Utah to showcase it to local and state elected officials in the near future, please contact Jenny Sonntag at uaslaexecutivedirector@gmail.com

ASLA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - BENJI WILLIAMSEN

Greetings and salutations! I am Benji Williamson. I am a Utah native, and I grew up in South Jordan and now I reside with my family in Lehi. I started my journey toward landscape architecture when I was 2 years old and got my first (I had several) bubble lawn mower. I would follow behind my dad while he mowed the lawn to make sure that nothing was missed and the lines were straight. This started a youthful career in business as I worked hard mowing lawns for my neighbors and various companies.

During my undergraduate schooling I realized that I could have the corner office with a view and be jealous of the guy mowing the lawn and after taking my first design course I knew that I wanted to get into landscape design. I love creating beautiful spaces for people to enjoy. To learn how to design beautiful spaces, I received a degree from BYU in Landscape Management and then earned a master’s at Kansas State University in Landscape Architecture. While in school, I also learned that I enjoyed the meticulous work in creating construction documents and details. In my mind, dreaming of the landscape is great, but building it is better. One of my favorite school projects was detailing out the very complex deck/trellis design I created to mimic the Flint Hill/prairie surrounding Kansas State. It would have been horrible to build but really cool when it was done!

After school I lived and worked in several states before coming back to Utah. Two years ago, I started my own irrigation consulting firm, BW Irrigation Consulting, and I provide irrigation design services for landscape architects and landscape contractors. I love irrigation design because it is the right mix of art and engineering. One of my favorite things about my work is supporting so many great teams and wonderful projects. Working for various firms in my career, I really enjoyed being part of the smaller team that supported the work of the larger team(s). In larger studios, there typically wasn't a lot of change between design teams. But doing irrigation, I was able to cross between teams and work on lots of different project types. While I do many types of projects, I love designing the irrigation systems for parks. The irrigation systems are large, complex, and fun to figure out. When I’m not working, I enjoy spending time with my family (Holly, Eliza-2, and Austin-1), traveling, running, and building Lego sets.

Much of my design work is in the San Diego area, ranging from master planned communities and parks, to small retail shops. This project is a park that will be built by a developer as part of their residential community. There is a code/rule that requires developers to provide a city park if their developments are over a certain size, and then the park size grows as the development grows. This park will begin construction soon and I am very excited to be a part of it and to take my family there one day. There are several ball fields, two dog parks, multiple play structures, and an area for a future recreation center. This is a fun and challenging project.

PARK(ING) DAY 2023 - POLLINATOR PLACES!

Aaron Johnson, VP of Visibility & Social Media

Park’ing Day was a huge success! Many people visited the pop up park to learn about the role of Landscape Architects in improving our community as well as the vital role of pollinators. Huge thank you to Tess Menotti and Alaina Parsek as well as the other volunteers who helped with setup/take down and staffed the booth during the day. Shout out to Progressive Plants and Tree Utah for providing the pollinator friendly plants.