From the June issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine and its featured story on nine queer landscape designers to yesterday’s webinar, Queer Emergence, to social media, ASLA’s celebration of Pride Month is well underway. Throughout June, ASLA is sharing profiles of LGBTQIA+ landscape architects for Pride Month and to promote LGBTQIA+ visibility and acceptance in the landscape architecture and architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professions. In case you missed any of these profiles from social media, we are recapping them here on The Field.
The set of profiles below feature the panelists from ASLA’s June 12 webinar, Queer Emergence: An LGBTQIA+ Conversation in Landscape Architecture, which was inspired by an event at LABash 2023 at Kansas State University. The intention of this panel session was to open discussion on greater queer representation in landscape architecture—understanding the strengths and challenges of being a queer professional, and how this can inform not only LGBTQIA+ individuals, but all landscape architectural professionals. Topics covered include “why did it take us so long,” “how are we presenting in our work,” “the importance of networking,” and “what’s next.” The panel consisted of five queer professionals at different stages of their careers, to capture a portion of the diverse experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals in landscape architecture.
Cheri Ruane, FASLA
Vice President and Design Discipline Leader, Weston & Sampson
How did you find your way into landscape architecture?
I worked for my cousin’s landscape contracting firm in high school and met someone going to UMass for landscape architecture and learned about it at age 15.
How has being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community influenced your work in landscape architecture?
The thinking about inclusive and safe public outdoor space has become much more important in my work.
Can you share a project you have worked on that you’re particularly proud of?
Cannery Wharf Park in Provincetown, MA
How can built environments better support LGBTQIA+ communities?
When government ensures equitable access to safe and inclusive open spaces, our built environments can operate in support of our growing queer communities.
Kelley Oklesson, ASLA
Principal, Groundsmith Collective
How did you find your way into landscape architecture?
By accident. Took an entry level course in college.
How has being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community influenced your work in landscape architecture?
It has inspired me to be outspoken. I feel inspired to be the change we need to see.
Can you share a project you have worked on that you’re particularly proud of?
We recently worked with the Washington Youth Garden to help them envision what the next 50 years will look like. So grateful to work on a project that is so near and dear to us. Our owner/founder was an intern at the dogwood collection under the leadership of Joan Feely and George Waters in 2008.
How can built environments better support LGBTQIA+ communities?
I think we can both design more inclusive spaces, and let the public know that these spaces were designed by queer designers or at least firms that support inclusive spaces.
Max Dickson
Landscape Designer / Planner, OLIN
How did you find your way into landscape architecture?
I was raised in a pretty picturesque and unique landscape in Wisconsin. Surrounded by limestone bluffs, cedar forests, and the waters of Lake Michigan, moving through, seeing, and working in the landscape was deeply embedded in me. However, growing up, my only real exposure to a design profession was architecture, so as I went off to college I decided to study that. Pretty quickly through the program I realized that I was way more interested in what was happening outside of the building than in it. I then started to take courses in landscape architecture, urban design, and planning and everything just clicked and made sense! I pursued a dual masters degree in landscape architecture and urban and regional planning from the University of Minnesota and the rest is history!
How has being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community influenced your work in landscape architecture?
In order to plan and design inclusive and welcoming spaces, we must tune into how people of different races, abilities, gender identities, expressions, and sexual orientations navigate and use public space and design WITH these communities. I think my queerness allows for a different set of experiences and empathy that is then reflected in the approach and design of a project, as well as the engagement of the communities we are designing with.
Can you share a project you have worked on that you’re particularly proud of?
I am particularly proud of a research project I am working on with OLIN Labs, called PrideScapes. Launched in 2021, the project seeks to explore queer landscapes and to clarify the crucial importance of preserving queer spaces, telling untold queer histories, and bringing visibility to historically and culturally significant queer landscapes. Our research aims to speak to the intricacies and complexities of queer existence in public space but also how queer and trans people interact with landscape and architecture and how they imagine and reimagine their futures in these spaces. PrideScapes is also a platform to build community, form solidarities and create visibility within the profession. We aim to create spaces for queer and trans landscape designers and architects to advocate, share work and support/connect with one another.
How can built environments better support LGBTQIA+ communities?
We need our built environments to be places where individuals can be their true authentic selves without fear of harassment or violence, especially for the most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ+ community. As designers of an inclusive built environment for LGBTQ+ communities, we need to:
- approach projects through the intersection of social justice and good design;
- use history and culture to connect people to the landscape;
- have increased visibility, access, and representation in our built environments;
- have authentic engagement with LGBTQ+ communities;
- include inclusive infrastructures that reflect the community; and
- allow space for remembrance, celebration, and joy!
Jordan Chiang, Assoc. ASLA
Associate, EDSA, Inc.
How did you find your way into landscape architecture?
I’ve been drawing as long as I can remember, always been the artistic, creative type. But I also was fascinated by science and the way things worked. In high school, I had a percussion instructor who worked as a landscape designer, which is how I discovered the field. And from there, I did a bit of research, a summer program, and ended up going on to study landscape architecture for my bachelor’s degree.
How has being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community influenced your work in landscape architecture?
Being genderfluid/non-binary, I would say that it translates into the way I design—fluidity in the way I move through the design process, and looking for creative ways to problem-solve more than just ‘checking a box.’ On the other hand, I’ve also found it to be a bit of a driving factor to always keep improving and to find success, because I don’t ever want to be held back because of the way I look or identify.
Can you share a project you have worked on that you’re particularly proud of?
The Pompano Beach Fishing Village. As an intern, I did some sketches, went to a couple meetings, and visited the site. Fast forward to now and it’s built, five minutes from my apartment. I go to the beach there every weekend, and it’s such a great reminder each time of the influence our profession can have on people and on communities.
Sam Dent, ASLA
Associate, SWA Group
How did you find your way into landscape architecture?
I was growing up watching Hayao Miyazaki’s anime. The conflict of nature and civilization is the core idea throughout his work, and it motivated me and became a major part of my design philosophy. Landscape architecture is the perfect platform for me to design with nature in mind, and it allows me to express my art and repair nature at the same time.
How has being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community influenced your work in landscape architecture?
Being a queer person living in a straight-dominant society, it definitely made me more able to empathize with marginalized communities. Feeling discriminated and unwelcomed growing up, I am channeling my trauma into my design works, and I aspire to design an equitable space that serves and welcomes everyone.
Can you share a project you have worked on that you’re particularly proud of?
I am proud to be on the team designing the Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza in Castro, San Francisco. Harvey’s story inspired generations of queer activists to come out and made queer people visible. It is my honor to design for the queer community and continue his legacy to make queer culture thrive.
How can built environments better support LGBTQIA+ communities?
Every city has a neighborhood that makes one community feel safe: Chinatown, queer community…etc. We call it a “safe space”, and we feel safe because we know the people in this neighborhood will accept us. I think a well-functioning and inclusive public space should make everyone feel safe and welcomed, that it encourages diverse cultural programs and activities, and it embraces and promotes queer public art to be visible. The more visibility of queer culture to the public, the more we remind them we are citizens who deserve respect and equal rights as everyone else.
To watch the panel conversation:
To connect with LGBTQIA+ professionals in landscape architecture, follow @PridexASLA on Instagram.
Keep an eye on ASLA’s social media for more member profiles and stay tuned for a second recap here on The Field next week!
This really touched a nerve for me. As a gay man who as been in the business for +30 years, not only am I disgusted that I am being asked “why did it take us so long?” I am furious that the LGB Community has been taken over by vocal TQIA+ movement. Sadly to say that as a group, that is “all accepting”, this new movement is of our own creation. That being said… It did not take me long at all ‘to get there’. I focused my career goals based on my schooling, skills, and experience; not my sexual identify. I am extremely upset that those of us who pursued our careers, have families, and enjoy all that the US has to offer are being subjugated by those who want to change the rules based on what they want. Ironically, now I am often called a bigot and homophobe! If your success is dependent on people accepting you for who you are and not what talents you bring, you are in for a big disappointment.
I’m sorry that you feel sharing a professional space with queer folks is such a burden. But I’m not sure where you’re getting a feeling of subjugation from? I found the anecdotal experiences of the fine and talented people in this article to be inspiring. No where do I see anything that indicates their success in the field of design was unmerited or based on their identity. You sound illogical and I’ll mannered, and I hope you grow out of that unhealthy mindset
And they wonder why so many talented folks have left the profession