In this season of thanks and appreciation, I am writing to express my gratitude for allowing me to serve as President of the ASLA Southern California Chapter of last year. It’s been an amazing experience – bookended by our annual conferences in Nashville and San Francisco, and I would like to share a few highlights of the last twelve months:

  • Our Programs committee led by Gabriella Golik and in collaboration with local firms, organized a series of successful tours of local award-winning projects, including Palm Springs Downtown Park (RIOS), So-Fi Stadium (Studio-MLA), and Magic Johnson Park (MIG).
  • Our Liaison to Students, Tricia O’Connell, organized ASLA student awards at all four of our chapter universities – Cal Poly SLO, USC, Cal Poly Pomona, and UCLA.
  • In September, on National ASLA Advocacy Day, Pamela Brief, Hongjoo Kim, and myself – in conjunction with representatives from the other California ASLA chapters, met with state and federal legislators to advocate for pending legislation on ASLA’s behalf. These included the “Outdoors for All Act” (HR 5413) and “Urban Heat Island Mitigation Act” (HR 7534). As a result of our efforts, at least one legislator – Representative Judy Chu (California, District 27) – signed on as co-sponsor of the latter legislation.
  • Our HALS program – led by Allison Terry – completed a years-long endeavor to document the historic Virginia Robinson gardens in Beverly Hills.
  • Over the last year, our membership grew from a pandemic low of 519 to 591 with an additional 237 ASLA Student members.
  • We closed out the year with a flurry of planning for our upcoming Climate Action Symposium – scheduled for Earth Day, April 22, 2023 at Magic Johnson Park. This will be a daylong event in which ASLA’s new Climate Action Plan will be discussed and firms and individuals share how to give you, our members, the tools to address climate change in your projects. Many thanks to Ronnie Siegel and her amazing team – Carlos Flores, Pamela Galera, Greg Kochanowski, Gary Lai, Claire Latane’, and Adrian Tenney – for their hard work in getting the event off the ground with their initial planning for the event.
  • Thank you for our outgoing Past President Carlos Flores, our new President Pamela Brief, President Elect, Hongjoo Kim, and Trustee Baxter Miller for their counsel and friendship during this challenging year.And last, but not least, none of us would be here today without the amazing efforts of our Executive Director, Victoria Phillipy. She has guided me throughout the year in the planning of the event, the organization of stuff, and the decisions of the President. I could not have done it without her. Thank you Vicki!