ASLA UTAH OCTOBER 2025 NEWSLETTER

UPCOMING EVENTS

SAVE THE DATE - Friday, May 8th 2026

2026 ASLA Utah Annual Conference

The Ballpark at America First Square home of the Salt Lake Bees

LEADERSHIP EXPRESS -

Jesse Allen, ASLA Utah President

I’m honored to be serving as your 2025–2026 Chapter President, alongside an outstanding group of Executive Committee members whose energy and commitment continue to elevate our profession. Together, we’re focused on advancing ASLA Utah’s mission of advocacy, communication, education, and fellowship.

I want to take a moment to recognize three individuals whose leadership and dedication are especially vital to our chapter’s success:

Jenny Sonntag, our Executive Director, whose organization, leadership, and steady coordination keep this chapter thriving. From event logistics and member outreach to the details that make our programs successful, Jenny’s professionalism and care are indispensable to ASLA Utah’s continued momentum.
Bryce Ward, our Trustee, who has served in this role since 2021. Bryce acts as the conduit between our local chapter and the ASLA national board, ensuring Utah’s voice is represented in national dialogue. His consistent leadership has also helped steer the Utah Chapter Strategic Plan and strengthen our long-term vision.
Lars Erickson, our Past President, who’s shoes I’m trying to fill, is now focusing his attention on our Advocacy and Outreach Coordinating Council. This group is working to elevate the visibility and influence of landscape architecture at both the state and municipal levels, a crucial step toward broader recognition of our profession’s impact.

To these three, and to all the volunteers and leaders who give their time and talent, thank you for keeping ASLA Utah moving forward.

We’ve already hit the ground running this fall with two big events: the Laurie Olin Documentary Film Screening and the ASLA Utah Awards Banquet. Both were uplifting reminders of why we do what we do. The Olin film prompted reflection on the legacy of one of the field’s great thinkers, his humility, craft, and ability to connect design with human experience. The Awards Banquet celebrated the creativity, innovation, and purpose driving the work of Utah’s landscape architects and students across a wide range of project types. Together, these events set a great tone for the year ahead.

My personal focus for 2025–2026 is on recognition, continuing the work of increasing the understanding of our profession in two key ways:

1. Governmental Awareness
Working closely with our lobbyist Dave Kallas, we are strengthening relationships with public entities, municipalities, and state agencies to highlight the tangible value landscape architects bring to Utah’s communities. In the coming weeks, we’ll meet with leaders at DFCM to discuss the role of landscape architecture in state projects, an important conversation given how many municipalities reference state standards and structures in their own frameworks.

2. Public Communication
We are also working to reach the broader public with a clearer and more relatable story of what landscape architecture is and does. The FrameWorks Institute, in partnership with ASLA, CLARB, LAF, and others, published “Putting People at the Center: Reframing Landscape Architecture for Maximum Impact.” You can access the full report through your ASLA membership here: https://www.asla.org/uploadedFiles/CMS/Practice/Frameworks/Report.pdf

The report’s central message is simple, landscape architecture is work by people, for people. To improve public understanding, it urges us to lead with how our work benefits people, how designed outdoor spaces bring communities together, improve quality of life, and strengthen connection to place.

In the Laurie Olin Documentary, he reminds us that our work is often inherently subtle. It can appear so seamlessly integrated with its surroundings that it feels as though it has always been there. That quiet success, however, also makes it harder for the public to understand what landscape architects do. Our work isn’t usually a single object to point at, it’s the space between, the space around, and the space we all share outside.

This year let’s each take part in that effort, to communicate the impact that landscape architecture has on people more clearly, more confidently, and more often.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve, for your ongoing engagement in ASLA Utah, and for the impact you make in your communities and workplaces. I look forward to working alongside you in the year ahead.

Jesse Allen, ASLA Utah President

Dear Landscape Architect — A New Feature for ASLA Utah Members

Dear Landscape Architect is a monthly feature from ASLA Utah exploring the art, ethics, and evolving practice of landscape architecture — written to spark conversation, reflection, and renewed care for our living medium. Submit your question to dearlautah@gmail.com.

October 2025: Dear Landscape Architect, “Should there be more emphasis, continuing education classes, and overall education on good planting design basics for landscape architects and students?”

Thank you for asking such an important question — one that touches the very heart of our profession. The short answer is yes — absolutely. But the longer answer reveals why this emphasis is essential, what’s currently missing, and how we can bring planting design back to the center of our professional identity. Please read on…CLICK HERE TO READ FULL RESPONSE

Documenting Historic Landscapes Can Help Us Plan for Responsible Growth

Amy Ried, ASLA Utah HALS Committee Chair

From private gardens to public spaces like cemeteries, parks, byways, and archeological sites – historic landscapes hold layers of memories and stories that connect us as families and communities. As Utah continues to face unprecedented growth in communities across our state, taking time to identify and document significant historic landscapes helps lay the groundwork for thoughtful planning, revitalization, and historic preservation efforts. Documentation can also be done to celebrate iconic sites and serve as an important record of landscapes which have disappeared. Slowing down to consider our historic landscapes and the context of the environment which shaped them, can positively inform our work as landscape architects today.

Founded in 2000 by the National Park Service with support from ASLA and the Library of Congress, HALS was established to document the way historic landscapes have shaped our nation’s heritage and development. I’m excited to join our chapter as the new HALS Liaison! I’ll be working with the Utah State Historic Preservation Office and ASLA Utah leadership to compile a list of historic landscapes to consider for HALS documentation. Please share your ideas for possible sites with me: amyreid99@gmail.com. To learn more about HALS and to see the seven Utah sites already in the database, please click here.

Undated perspective photo of stockyards. Courtesy USHS Classified Photo Collection. This photograph is taken from the Union Stock Yard (Ogden Union Stockyard) HALS report completed in 2014 by Io LandArch. Ogden City ordered the report to comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act since they were receiving federal funding for site redevelopment.

Special Thanks to ASLA Utah 2025 Sponsors & Corporate Partners for their Support!

Platinum Sponsors
BioGrass | Great Western Recreation | Rain Bird

Gold Sponsors
Belgard | Hunter/FX Luminaire | LuckyDog Recreation | MADRAX/Thomas Steele | Victor Stanley

Silver Sponsors

Corporate Partners
Denton House | FenceTrac | G Brown Design