March 27, 2025 – Shannon Nichol, FASLA, PLA, has been selected to join the 2025 American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Professional Awards Jury.

Every year, the ASLA Professional Awards honor the best landscape architecture work from around the world. Award recipients are given recognition in ASLA’s Landscape Architecture Magazine, and their clients will be honored at the awards presentation ceremony during this year’s ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture.

Entrants can choose to compete in any of the following categories:

• General Design

• Residential Design

• Urban Design

• Analysis and Planning

• Communications

• Research

• The Landmark Award

Shannon will be judging entries for the General Design, Residential Design, and Urban Design categories while another group of jurors will be judging entries for the Analysis and Planning, Communications, and Research categories. Both juries will come together to judge entries for the Landmark Award.

The jurors that will be working with Shannon include Thomas Balsley, FASLA, PLA, Co-founder of SWA/Balsley and Jury Chair; Carol Coletta, Strategic Advisor at Coletta & Company; Adam Greenspan, FASLA, Design Partner at Peter Walker Partners; David Hocker, FASLA, PLA, Founder of Hocker Design Group; Steph Thisius-Sanders, ASLA, PLA, Director of Planning & Construction at North of the River Recreation and Park District; C.L. Bohannon, FASLA, Associate Dean for Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at the University of Virginia School of Architecture; L. Irene Compadre, ASLA, PLA, Principal at Arbolope Studio; and Matt Hickman, Senior News/Digital Editor at Architectural Record.

Learn more about the ASLA Professional Awards here.

March 26, 2025 – Shannon Nichol, FASLA, PLA, LEED AP, is speaking as part of the University of Texas Austin School of Architecture’s Spring 2025 Lecture Series this Wednesday, April 2.

Shannon’s lecture, Finding and Drawing Your Design, will discuss informal hand drawing as a tool for creative thinking, helpful disruption, and communication, as well as the integration of personal interests into design work. Through this lecture, Shannon will share valuable insights with students, young professionals, and designers who may be considering how to feel most creatively engaged with increasingly automated daily tasks and formulaic expectations.

There will also be lectures presented by Albert Pope, Gus Sessions Wortham Professor of Architecture at Rice University; Stephen Cassell, FAIA, Principal at Architecture Research Office; Daniel Escotto, Professor of Architectural Theory and History at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Ananya Roy, Professor of Urban Planning, Social Welfare, and Geography and The Meyer and Renee Luskin Chair in Inequality and Democracy at the University of California Los Angeles; Wyatt Armstrong, Designer, Fabricator, and Educator; Eric Bunge, FAIA, Co-Founding Partner of nARCHITECTS; and Brigitte Shim and A. Howard Sutcliffe, Principals at Shim-Sutcliffe Architects.

These lectures aim to provide students with insights from architects, urban planners, landscape architects, interior designers, and urban designers on key topics within the study and practice of architecture, design, planning, and the built environment.

Learn more on the University of Texas event page.

March 25, 2025 – David Malda, ASLA, LEED AP, is the opening keynote speaker for the 2025 American Institute of Architecture Students West Quad Conference – “uncommon ground” at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho, on Thursday, March 27.

David’s presentation, Making Landscapes, will explore landscape’s potential in connecting people to the land and to each other through the land. With emphasis on building relationships among the people and places that already exist (and have often been damaged), attendees can be expected to learn how our work as landscape architects can support broader initiatives for belonging to a place, rather than simply adding another new thing.

The closing keynote speaker is Jacob Dunn, LEED AP BD+C, Principal at ZGF. Other notable professionals who will be at the conference include Shauna Corry, Dean of the College of Art and Architecture at the University of Idaho; Chris Roberts, AIA, Principal at Opsis Architecture; Shannon Christensen, FAIA, NCARN, LEED AP BD+C, Principal at Cushing Terrell; and Jason Butler, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD+C, Principal at Cushing Terrell.

This 4-day event aims to present the themes of context, community, and collaboration through workshops, building tours, professional networking events, social gatherings, and keynote lectures.

Learn more on the event website here.