NMASLA 2022 Q3 Newsletter

2022 Quarter 3: Chapter Newsletter

NMASLA — October 2022

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Hello Everyone, and Happy Autumn!

There is a reason this is so many people’s favorite season in New Mexico. Sunny cooler days, the smell of chile roasting, colorful balloons in the sky, and the glorious fall of the summer leaves. The transition from summer to Fall always seems slightly more meaningful than other seasons, and I hope it finds each of you happy, healthy, and poised to change with it. Life keeps us on our toes, but nature constantly teaches us how best to navigate.

For NMASLA, Fall has brought us a particularly wonderful thing - students! We have been so happy and excited for the opportunity to reach out to all of the Landscape Architecture students at UNM, to rekindle the Mentorship program, and start talking about other ways that we can support their experience while in school. Turns out that our fairly small Landscape Architecture community is a pretty generous one. Thanks to the students for their resounding interest, and an extra big thank you to all the professionals who have stepped forward to serve as Mentors – We have 17 mentor/mentee pairs this year, and we could not do it without each of you! (See article below)

We also held our 26th Annual Golf Tournament over the summer. Well attended as always, everyone enjoyed the opportunity to mingle with other professionals, and several friendly product reps traveled from far and wide for a day of fun with NMASLA Members. Thank you to our many sponsors for this fun day of golf and silly antics. We plan to change-it up a little next year, so we hope to see even more of you out on the greens in 2023. Despite the torrential mid-game downpour this year, the drinks were cold, the costumes were on-point, and (some of us) played some excellent golf as always!

As we transition into Fall we also transition into the newly-elected Executive Committee. It has been a joy and an honor to serve as President for this past year, and I am happy to continue to take part in all of the NMASLA efforts and initiatives going forward. As always, please reach-out with your bold ideas and suggestions. We hope to see you all at the Holiday Party in December!

Courtney McKelvey

RECENTLY PUBLISHED….

Fall 2022 edition of edible SEED STORY: THE GENIUS OF LOCAL “Seed Story” by Christie Green explores the “genius of the seed” and why robust native plant species are so important to New Mexico’s ecosystems. Green speaks with landowners, conservationists, and other stakeholders who “are embracing collaborative stewardship grounded in the . . . spirit and wisdom of a place.” “Investing in these local seeds,” Green writes, “along with growers, collectors, and distributors, fosters long-term ecological, economic, and cultural resilience.”

LINK TO ARTICLE - pages 62-67

August, 25 2022 edition of TAOS NEWS. FECHIN’S ANGEL

The Taos Art Museum at Fechin House (TAM) has a 'Garden Angel' who has vowed to enhance the curb appeal of the museum and fund ongoing preservation and upgrades to the Fechin house, studio and gardens.

Richard C. Bumstead, a retired University of Chicago Landscape Architect, moved to Albuquerque a few years ago. He said he has fond childhood memories living next door to the Fechin House many years ago as a child— and now plans to lend his professional expertise in developing a landscape plan for the historic house and art museum.

LINK TO ARTICLE

NMASLA Increases Advocacy for Landscape Architecture

With the growing concern over climate change, the ongoing drought in the American West, and the recent passage of Federal American Rescue Plan legislation, NMASLA felt the need to increase advocacy for our vocation and what we can do as licensed professionals to help address and mitigate these issues. Two major initiatives have been undertaken by the Executive Committee to advocate for the role of landscape architects:

Meeting with our Congressional Delegation to Washington

Rob Loftus, Ken Romig, and Claudia Horn represented NMASLA in the meetings with our congressional representatives for Advocacy Day 2022. They met virtually with representatives (Legislative Assistants) from the following offices:

Sen. Ben Ray Lujan September 29
Sen. Martin Heinrich October 12
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez September 29
Rep. Melanie Stansbury September 29

During the meetings, the NMASLA members explained the roles that landscape architects do play, along with our allied professionals, in the design of our built environment.

Creating a brochure

In order to create a brief takeaway from these types of meetings in the future, the NMASLA Executive Committee has been working on developing a single page, full color trifold brochure. Jitka Dekojova, Richard Bumstead and Rob Loftus have been pulling the information together and selecting images to illustrate the various topics. The brochure will highlight the roles landscape architects can play in addressing climate change, drought and water management, transportation planning, and accessing the great outdoors. It also outlines the rigorous education a student of landscape architecture must go through and continue with during their career to obtain and retain their license.

It is the hope that these efforts will expand the awareness of our profession and increase the roles landscape architects will have in the future.

NMASLA MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

This September, NMASLA paired up with students from the UNM’s Department of Landscape Architecture as part of a revitalized Mentorship Program. Landscape architects from across the state were invited to become a mentor to a student for the current academic year. No prior mentoring experience or licensure was required to become a mentor, just the desire to help the student navigate through some of the issues both in the classroom as well as in the office. The student and mentor were to set the pace of how frequently they met and what activities they participated in. The idea is to show the students what it’s like to be a working professional and share some insights through activities such as:

Visit yours or a colleague’s office
Review current or past projects you or your company designed
Tour multiple favorite projects in town to discuss, critique and share your thoughts
Visit UNM George Pearl Hall Studio
Grab coffee or meet for lunch to discuss each other’s projects
Attend a landscape-related conference (such as Think Trees, Land + Water, etc.)
Explore the local art scene for inspiration
Provide your feedback on any design projects your student will have
Discuss the profession of Landscape Architecture

It’s a unique opportunity to connect one-on-one with the landscape architecture students and show them what life is like on the professional side.

NMASLA and UNM students gathered in the Consensus Planning courtyard in downtown Albuquerque for drinks and snacks on beautiful Friday evening September 30 so that the students and mentors could have a casual atmosphere in which to meet each other. In the end, NMASLA paired 17 students and mentors together in what we hope will be a beneficial collaboration.

STUDENTS                            MENTORS
Viktorija Kristupaitis                Kristina Werenko
Thea Swift                               Laurie Firor
Roman Aragon                       Alicia Peterson
Nikolas Byous                         Rob Loftis
Lauren Thomson                    Ted Weber
Kristina Naber                         Courtney McKelvey
Jonathon Cunningham           Teara Herrera
Fereshteh Vamenani              Brian Griffith
Dylan W. Martin                      Christopher Schlouski
Dan Pingaro                            Ken Romig
Cecily Anderson                     Travis Tabet
Cathy Buya                             Solange Serquis
Brittney Kostelecky                 Claudia Meyer Horn
Aparna Banik                          Sara Zahm
Amir Reza Maroofkhani          Arturo Merino
Abby Kuchar                           Mario Nuño-Whelan

We wish them all the best of luck and hope this does prove beneficial for both parties. There will be a follow-up article next summer to report on some of the more notable activities and events.

PROJECT PROFILE

DPS: Presbyterian Robert Wertheim Hospice House

Presbyterian Robert Wertheim Hospice House is a residentially inspired and fully licensed hospice care facility situated in northeast Albuquerque at Presbyterian’s Northside Campus. This 7,700-sf home has 10 resident rooms, each featuring a private patio with views looking toward the Sandia Mountains. Just outside of the large family room, a serene courtyard and sensory garden allows space for larger family groups to gather with their loved ones, and the plants were specifically chosen to remind residents of the comforts of home. The lushly planted garden features Roses, Lavender, Coneflower, and Daffodils, a symbol of hospice care, to name a few. Also near the main living room, a serene meditation space overlooks a small courtyard garden, providing a secluded area where hospice visitors may step away to gather themselves or reflect on the life of their loved-one in peace. The outdoor spaces at the Robert Wertheim Hospice House provide an important connection with nature, and comfortable spaces where residents and their families can share memories and celebrate their life.