Landscape Architecture Magazine January 2026

EMERSON GOO (“Space to Sign,” page 64) is a Deaf writer covering art, film, and design and a planner at PBR Hawaii & Associates, Inc., in Honolulu. You can follow him on Instagram @knottheory. “One of the old campus buildings that was removed, the Red Barn, was nicknamed so by the school because of its distinctive roofing and red coloring. It was designed by Olof Hanson (1862–1933), the earliest known Deaf architect in the United States.” BRICE MARYMAN, FASLA (“Included by Design,” page 38), explores the intersection of homelessness and public space as a founding partner at MxM Landscape Architecture in Seattle. You can follow him on Instagram @brice.maryman. “Coming from a region where the conversations around homelessness are often ossified and unproductive, what was so remarkable about Fayetteville’s story was the…

Remembering Kongjian Yu I was genuinely surprised to read Jennifer Reut’s essay on Kongjian Yu in the November issue. I am forever indebted to Bill Thompson, former LAM editor, who reached out circa 2002 when I was serving as an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Architecture. Bill asked if I would be willing to write about Zhongshan Shipyard Park, Turenscape’s first ASLA Award–winning project. Bill noted his task would include visiting the site and interviewing Kongjian Yu, the principal designer and Turenscape’s founder. Zhongshan was a short ferry ride away from Hong Kong, just across the Pearl River Delta. During our first encounter, I experienced Kongjian’s unbounded enthusiasm for ecological design strategies and his intense sense of urgency, and I observed his didactic approach and…

The word “research” dates to the 16th century, and its meaning—from the French term for “to seek”—has been remarkably durable over the centuries. But it’s been a less settled idea in landscape architecture. Straddling the humanities and the sciences, and leaning a bit more in either direction depending on which way the cultural winds are blowing, landscape architects have been arguing about what constitutes research in the field for several decades. To my mind, this debate shifted in 2010, when the Landscape Architecture Foundation began publishing the Landscape Performance Series and the profession established a body of research that could be reviewed and measured over time. In July 2023, landscape architecture was designated a STEM profession by the Department of Homeland Security, an achievement that was many years and many…

The new year is a natural time to take stock, to reflect on the experiences of the previous 12 months, and to set an intention for those to come. For Liz Richmond, the founder of Outcrop Land-scape Architecture in Sausalito, California, this impulse has become a ritual tied to the landscape. At the start of each year, Richmond and her family collect found objects—shells, rocks, feathers, seedpods, dismembered crustacean claws—and arrange them on a piece of slate. At year’s end, Richmond puts the objects in a jar, leaving the slate empty. The first time she performed this ritual at the end of 2020, the same year Richmond lost her mother and a global pandemic turned everyone’s world upside down, she thought, “We’re clearing the slate,” recalling that “it felt apt.”…

Successful landscape designs in northernclimates do more than celebrate fleeting summers: They invite communities outdoors year-round. In Wayzata, Minnesota, a lakefront reclamation by Denver-based Civitas has reconnected the town to its rail-severed shoreline with a new lake walk that provides all-season access to the water’s edge. Improvements on the land side include plazas, flexible-use lawn panels, a string-lit canopy, and firepits that extend activity into colder months, while programming strategies, including curling rinks and winter festivals, ensure the waterfront remains lively when temperatures drop. “Our intent was to have a purpose-built open space that could be used in every season,” says Wayzata Mayor Andrew Mullin. “But when you’re talking about a lake and land, that’s complicated—there’s ice, there are extreme conditions.” The boardwalk’s steel piles are fitted with conical icebreakers…

CAROLINE LAVOIE Professor of Landscape Architecture, Utah State University CINQUE TERRE & PIAZZA DEL CAMPO Siena, Italy Various The intimate scale of the five coastal villages and the glow of sunset left a lasting impression during a trip with a colleague and students. We traveled by train between villages, moving from sea-level harbors to higher cliffside views, ending the day in Manarola as the sun set over the Mediterranean. CHACO CANYON New Mexico Pueblo peoples Years of drawing the deserts of the West have taught me to capture shifting light and quiet force with the simplest lines. At Chaco, remnants of ancestral Pueblo culture speak of vanished water and the fleeting nature of any moment, reminding me to stay attuned to the land’s subtle shifts. LA COULÉE VERTE Paris Jacques…