Making cultural humility a lifelong practice by connecting to long-term stewardship and ethical obligation to support of change. Learn how landscape architecture can contribute to healing people and land through commitments that last beyond project delivery.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the importance of making cultural humility an ongoing part of professional practice.
• Evaluate projects using cultural humility indicators rather than relying solely on technical metrics.
• Develop a personal and organizational roadmap for practicing cultural humility over time.

Image: Tásmam Koyóm Cultural Park – Visioning Workshop, Maidu Summit Consortium, Chester, CA. NPS Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program / National Park Service

Design is more than shaping places; it is about shaping relationships. Every project leaves an imprint on the land, on communities, and on future generations. 

Cultural humility is the discipline of approaching that responsibility with curiosity instead of certainty, reciprocity instead of extraction, and accountability instead of intention. 

Through this four-part webinar series, landscape architects are invited not simply to learn about Indigenous Peoples, but to transform how they practice in service of healthier lands, stronger communities, and enduring right relations.

Framework

Rather than presenting cultural awareness as a checklist, this webinar series will frame cultural humility as an ongoing professional practice change that transforms how landscape architects listen, build relationships, make informed decisions, and help steward land through co-creation.

Based on the philosophy of MIG's Native Nation Building Studio—design is relationship, planning is healing, and landscape architecture is an act of reciprocity—the series will center Indigenous leadership, trauma-informed engagement, inherent Indigenous sovereignty, and accountability rather than simply providing historical information.

Theme

Creating landscapes that heal communities through practice that understand relationships, not projects, as the foundation of lasting change for future generations.

The overall webinar series progression will be from awareness to understanding to reflection to practice, highlighting that cultural humility is never ending, and something that needs to become part of our professional practice.

Series Outcome

By the conclusion of the four-part series, participants should be able to:

• Explain why cultural humility is an ethical obligation in landscape architecture.
• Differentiate consultation, engagement, collaboration, and co-creation.
• Understand why relationship building is important part of our work.
• Apply trauma-informed principles to community engagement.
• Recognize Inherent Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous self-determination as essential planning contexts.
• Integrate Indigenous knowledge respectfully through relationship rather than extraction.
• Evaluate projects using cultural humility indicators rather than relying solely on technical metrics.
• Develop a personal and organizational roadmap for practicing cultural humility over time.

This framing aligns with ASLA’s commitments to climate action, environmental justice, and ethical practice while contributing to healing people, place and relationships grounding in respect, reciprocity, and Indigenous leadership.

Images left to right: Chehalis Basin Local Actions Non-Dam (LAND) Alternative, State of Washington, Department of Ecology – Quinault Indian Nation Meeting, Taholah, WA. MIG, Inc. / MIG, Inc.; Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel Tribal Community Plan - Kumeyaay Annual Gathering of Nations, MIG, Inc. / MIG, Inc.; Shasta Takelma Indigenous Garden at Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR. Visioning Workshop. MIG, Inc. / Mohammad A. Zamani (MAZ); Tásmam Koyóm Cultural Park – Visioning Workshop, Maidu Summit Consortium, Chester, CA. NPS Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program / National Park Service

Explore the cutting edge of technology in practice and tools for site analysis, visualization, design, and collaboration. Moving beyond the basics, Tech Day starts with a deep dive into Geospatial AI with Esri, where you will discover how to harness machine learning and satellite imagery to track shifting environments, from forest loss to urban sprawl, even when traditional data is unavailable. Learn to extract intricate landscape patterns using pre-trained and self-trained models, empowering you to make data-driven design decisions for ecological preservation and long-term land-use strategies. This session will be complemented by technical demonstrations from industry leaders SiteMarker and Land F/X. Tech Day provides the high-tech toolkit you need to master complex sites and redefine the boundaries of your practice. 

Tech Day: Wednesday, November 18, 2026

Mapping Change: How Machine Learning Reveals Shifting Landscapes
1:00-2:00 p.m. (Eastern)
1.0 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)
ASLA Online Learning Lab presented by Esri

Tech Demo’s

• SiteMarker: 2:15 p.m. (Eastern)
• Land F/X: 3:00 p.m. (Eastern)

Tech Day registration is FREE for ASLA members. If you can't make it to the live event, Tech Day will be recorded and available afterwards on-demand.

Image: Lagos, Nigeria. Growth from 2013 to 2024 / Renia Kagkou, Esri, Satellite Data: USGS, Landsat 8

Play is more than just recreation; it's an essential part of healthy and thriving communities. In this session, we examine the changing landscape of play design and how new trends are turning outdoor spaces into destinations that promote wellbeing, inclusion and community connection.

This session establishes the importance of play and explores key trends in play and recreation design—such as adventure and awe, universal design, and the growth of outdoor fitness—and their positive effects on people of all ages and abilities. Attendees will learn how intentionally designed spaces promote development, support equity, and deliver measurable benefits to communities.

Learning objectives:

• Discuss the importance of play and outdoor environments in supporting individual and community development and why outdoor spaces foster unplugging. 
• Use data and research to demonstrate the importance of public play, recreation, and outdoor fitness spaces.
• Identify key trends in play design and how they promote equity, outdoor engagement, and developmental benefits.
• Explore how trends in play align with universal design principles and how to incorporate both in playspace design.

ASLA Online Learning Labs, available exclusively to ASLA members, allow you to learn from the best in the business. Tap into the knowledge of the people and companies that are transforming the future of our industry through emerging trends and techniques. Discover real world applications that will put your projects above the rest. 

This Online Learning Lab is brought to you by:

Image: At Jewett Park in Deerfield, Illinois, thoughtful design creates more than a playground—it creates a place where movement, exploration and connection come together. / BCI Burke

Theodore Roosevelt was transformed by the Badlands; this library transforms visitors. This session reveals how architects, landscape designers, and storytellers turned site, ecology, and history into an immersive, living landscape. Attendees will learn how bold collaboration, ecological design, and narrative-driven planning can create civic spaces that inspire, educate, and endure.

Learning objectives:

• Apply strategies for collaborative leadership that translate articulated design vision into built reality by aligning clients, architects, landscape architects, and construction teams to guide projects from concept to completion.
• Translate site analysis into design decisions by recognizing how subtle ecological, historical, and cultural qualities can drive innovative design solutions.
• Develop design strategies rooted in iterative, phased exploration while thinking at a systems level, moving beyond property lines and zones to create cohesive, contextually responsive landscapes that connect broader experiences.
• Incorporate land management and ecological stewardship as integral components of site planning, restoration, and long-term landscape performance.

Experiencing a city at street level reveals hidden nature, social networks, and power dynamics. Through cycling in Los Angeles, this session uncovers grassroots cultures, equity struggles, and policy challenges, demonstrating how embodied movement and community engagement can transform how designers read, understand, and act within urban landscapes.

Learning objectives:

• Use biking and walking to reveal hidden ecological, spatial, and social aspects of Los Angeles streets and apply these observations to strengthen site analysis and design understanding.
• Identify and apply strategies for engaging local bike and pedestrian advocates and community leaders as meaningful collaborators throughout the design and planning process.
• Evaluate how equity, race, and perception shape street design outcomes using Los Angeles cycling culture and policy as a focused case study.
• Integrate experiential, movement-based site learning into design workflows to strengthen contextual understanding and inform more equitable design decisions.

What if every project in Los Angeles helped repair one of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots? As housing mandates, invasive species, and climate extremes fragment habitat, discover how multi-scalar, multidisciplinary strategies—from ecological mapping to planting design—can transform development into restoration, producing resilient landscapes with measurable performance and cultural meaning.

Learning objectives:

• Evaluate a multi-scalar, interdisciplinary method for advancing biodiversity from region to site, from spatial modelling to on-the-ground experience, and through creative collaboration between landscape architects, habitat designers, and ecological researchers.
• Analyze how historic ecological mapping and the mapping of early human-landscape relationships reconstruct pre-urban systems and serve as infrastructure for contemporary habitat design in the highly developed Los Angeles Basin.
• Apply habitat-based planting design strategies to create dynamic, ecologically rich, and beautiful urban gardens that respond to Southern California's unique biodiversity challenges.
• Integrate historic ecological mapping and regional ecosystem sectioning into a design framework that aligns habitat performance with cultural and social values, producing landscapes that are environmentally functional and experientially meaningful.

Project management leadership is shaped by context—public accountability, funding systems, regulatory pressures, and organizational structure. Through perspectives from public agency, interdisciplinary, and single-discipline practice, this session examines how PMs navigate different systems of decision-making and responsibility—offering practical insight, tips, and direction for leading effectively across sectors.

Learning objectives:

• Recognize how project management challenges are addressed differently across public and private practice at varying scales.
• Apply perspective-based leadership advice to navigate authority, accountability, and complexity within your own organization.
• Adjust project management strategies based on your firm's structure, resources, and culture.
• Leverage project management as a platform for leadership influence, professional resilience, and healthier team culture across practice environments.

Landscape architects seek lasting, resilient landscapes, yet gaps between design intent and implementation often lead to preventable tree failure. Learn from standards authors and practitioners how the ANSI A300 Tree Care Standards strengthen specification writing, improve constructability, and enhance long-term tree performance.

Learning objectives:

• Explain what the ANSI A300 standards are, who uses them, and how they influence tree survival, constructability, and long-term landscape performance.
• Identify key interdisciplinary collaborators and their roles in aligning design intent with implementation to improve project outcomes.
• Identify updates to the ANSI A300 standards and key specification language ("shall," "should," and "may") that strengthens enforceability in construction documents.
• Apply arboricultural standards to improve planting, pruning, and establishment specifications within your own projects.

What if our definition of projects' cultural performance and social equity included not only benefits to end users, but the craftspeople and contractors who bring the landscape to life? How do we advocate for craftsmanship as a way to resist the homogenizing impacts of mass-production that are increasingly pervasive?

Learning objectives:

• Examine the collaborative dynamics between craftsperson, general contractor, and landscape architect, and how their distinct design philosophies and processes shape the built product.
• Articulate why preserving craft, craftsmanship, and skilled labor is important, and how to advocate for it on projects.
• Examine the social inequities embedded in the accessibility and distribution of crafted works, who is included and who is left out from its benefits.
• Discuss how elevating craftsmanship challenges the increasing standardization of design and a built environment shaped by automation and AI.