Public Practice Representation

Coordination, Collaboration, Team Leadership, Subject Matter Expertise, Agency Liaison, Task Force Member, Public Guardian

ASLA 2018 Professional Communications Honor Award. Homeplace: Conversation Guides for Six Communities, Rebuilding After Hurricane Matthew. Multiple communities, North Carolina. NC State University Coastal Dynamics Design Lab. Client: Hurricane Matthew Disaster Recovery and Resilience Initiative (HMDRRI).

NC State University Coastal Dynamics Design Lab Project Team

Public practice landscape architects represent the public’s interests helping balance environmental, physical, social, and economic considerations along with the interests and values of various constituents, community groups and agency goals and objectives. They are tasked with ensuring that all interests are represented in the decision-making process and have a fiduciary responsibility to protect the public health, safety, and welfare in an ethical and professional manner. Several factors that public practice landscape architects consider when representing the public’s interests include:

  • Understanding the requisite knowledge that underlies effective decision-making and  being is able to describe where anomalies or flaws may occur in the decision-making process for his/her/their area of expertise
  • The ability to utilize their experience to lead work groups typically comprising experts in specified areas of knowledge or practice
  • Supporting the definition and approval of processes and policies, rules and procedures, and communicating the contexts in which these are applied in the decision-making process
Expert input infographic with expert headshots

ASLA 2019 Professional Research Awards of Excellence. Site Commissioning: Proving Triple-Bottom-Line Landscape Performance at a National Scale. Andropogon. Client: US General Services Administration.

Andropogon

Public practice landscape architects serve as agency liaisons, task force members, subject-matter experts, and team leaders. As public guardians, they help ensure that appropriate coordination and collaboration occurs on all matters related to the planning, development, and management of public assets. They play an integral role in public representation through their efforts to:

  • Oversee coordination of three separate but closely related activities: policy development, cross-agency coordination and oversight of government operations
  • Build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships, facilitate communications and coordinate activities amongst agencies, organizations, and the public
  • Help identify problems in communications among these groups and assists in conflict resolution
  • Resolve issues relevant to project deliverable(s) within his/her/their area of expertise
  • Assist in reducing delays, increasing transparency and understanding of the status of requests, and assisting in the resolution of disputes
  • Translate technical information into comprehensible language
  • Explore and recommend suitable innovative, technological, and logistical solutions that can be implemented to enhance project delivery and organizational success
  • Provide public information outlining the public asset inventory and management practices
  • Identify necessary enforcement actions when reviewing planned and implemented projects

Keep Exploring Public Practice Landscape Architecture

Aerial drawing of the reimagined brownfield site known as the Lafitte Greenway

Guide to Public Practice Landscape Architecture

What is public practice landscape architecture? The not-for-profit enterprise whose mission is to design, implement, and manage functional, liveable, safe, and attractive places for the public, often developed with a larger social objective in mind—community gathering, preservation/acknowledgement of history/place, environmental resilience, and economic vitality.

Engagement facilitated conversation among residents and community members through sketching

Public Communications

Initiatives, Presentations, Media Relations, Progress Reporting, Public Education

Contract Administration

Procurement Proposals, Bid Documents, Advertising, Negotiations, Grants/Funding, Scope-of-work Refinement, Budgets, Billing

Data Collection & Analysis

GIS - Mapping, Surveys, Record Reviews, Site Condition Assessment (Grading and Drainage, Erosion, Circulation, Climatic Conditions)

Design

Drive design vision, advocate for landscape architecture components, create design standards, direct design processes

Engagement

Political Bodies, Stakeholders, Owners, Community Interest Groups, Programming, Inter-Organizational Relations

Project Management

Synthesize project components, Resolve project-wide issues, Quality Assurance, Construction document review, Budget and project expenditure monitoring, Process and permit administration

Aerial View of the Eastern End of Orange Mall

Public Asset Management

Inspections, Maintenance, Stewardship, Health & Safety, Inventories, Acquisitions & Agreements

Enhanced pathways traverse the Penn and Fountain Landfills, which rise 130 feet above Jamaica Bay.

Regulation & Compliance

Public Policy Development, Ordinances, Development Standards & Guidelines, Zoning Review, Permitting, Specifications

Academic researchers meet with a firm liaison to discuss a research project

Research & Documentation

Precedent/Benchmark/Case Studies, Historical Record Review, Preservation Studies, Informational Resources