Fighting for Our Future: The Case for Landscape-Led Infrastructure - 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Recorded On: 10/11/2025

What is landscape architecture’s best move for survival, and what is its role in the public domain? We ask important questions, engage the audience in meaningful discourse, and share major landscape-led infrastructure projects and research that can define our preparedness and future agency. We call the profession to action in this pivotal moment.

Learning objectives:

Understand the guiding adaptive climate research-based principles used in developing successful greenways and blueways in New Orleans, Miami, and New York.
Examine the role of public practice landscape architecture in delivering responsible, ethical, and biodiverse infrastructure at local and regional scales.
Evaluate landscape-led project factors using case study examples that maximize the profession's ability to impact society.
Analyze the criticality of providing integrated solutions in building public infrastructure.

Maria Reilly, ASLA

Senior Associate

Stantec

Maria Reilly is the Master Plan Manager at Miami-Dade County Parks (PROS) within the Planning, Design, and Construction Excellence Division. Her work centers around community engagement, education and the built environment in the public realm. She is a recent Urban Land Institute (ULI) Leadership graduate, ASLA ACEAC Public Realm track chair, past regional Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) director, past visiting AAR Artist, Rudy J. Favretti Fellow and Van Alen Institute grant-awardee. Maria’s work has been published and funded internally and externally and received national awards in public practice landscape architecture design, communication, and planning.

Gary Sorge, FASLA, PLA, AICP

Vice President, Community Development and Transportation

Stantec

Gary is an ASLA Fellow and planner with global design firm, Stantec. He is dedicated to advancing a collaborative and systems-based approach to landscape architecture practice as it intersects with transformational infrastructure investment and design. Gary’s breadth of knowledge and experience from ecology, cost benefit, community engagement, and design, supports a richly grounded practice. His practice has maintained a longstanding focus on the role of landscape architects in addressing traditional and non-traditional infrastructure renewal and adaptation challenges. He is committed to the reality and the promise of landscape architecture to advance the critical infrastructure needs of our time.

Dr. Galen Newman, FASLA

Professor and Head, Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning

Texas A&M University

Dr. Galen D. Newman, FASLA, FCELA, is Professor and Head in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning (LAUP) at Texas A&M University as well as the Youngblood Endowed Professor of Residential Land Development. Dr. Newman's research interests include community resilience, urban regeneration, land use science, spatial analytics, and built environment performance. His work has been published in many high-quality peer-reviewed outlets and has been funded through numerous internal and external funding sources. He has also won numerous national and international awards/recognitions for his teaching, research, and service.