July 9, 2003

National Organization Honors UO Landscape Architect

EUGENE, Ore.-- A University of Oregon professor’s examination of the distinctive, often iconic landscape architecture of Israel has been honored with the American Society of Landscape Architecture’s Communications Award for its quality and overall signficance to the profession.
Professor Kenneth Helphand’s “Dreaming Gardens: Landscape Architecture and the Making of Modern Israel” (University of Virginia Press, 2002) explores the contribution Israeli landscape architects made to their country’s development by designing places that are now important national outdoor symbols.
“Helphand’s scholarly tradition of cultural geography and his design sensibility result in a crafted narrative that deciphers the interrelationships between a land, a culture, the designed landscape, and the individual designers,” said Mira Engler, a professor of landscape architecture at Iowa State University.
Strong emphasis on academic work along with practical experience through project-oriented study and environmental problem solving are central to UO Department of Landscape Architecture programs. Those core values align with the internationally recognized ASLA and its mission to advance the practice of landscape architecture as not only the design of natural and built environments, but the analysis of those environments.
This has been a rewarding year for UO architects and the ASLA. In addition to Helphand, UO Landscape Architecture alumnus Paul Morris (‘84) is president of ASLA, which represents 13,500 landscape architects in 50 states, the U.S. territories, and 42 countries around the world. ASLA promotes the landscape architecture profession and advances the practice through advocacy, education, communication, and fellowship.
For more information on Helphand or the UO Landscape Architecture program, visit http://landarch.uoregon.edu.

Contact: Melanie Harmon, (541) 346-3481, mmharmon@uoregon.edu
Source: Karen Johnson, Assistant Dean, (541) 346-3603, karenjj@uoregon.edu