Go the Distance: Envisioning, Implementing, and Curating Great Linear Landscapes - 1.25 PDH (LA CES/HSW)

Recorded On: 10/10/2025

By bike, on foot, and with paddles, Americans are increasingly discovering the adventure of linear landscapes. Yet transforming corridors that span diverse regions, ecologies, and jurisdictional boundaries poses unique challenges. Join public- and private-sector landscape architects for lively discussion about visioning, implementation, and stewardship of three diverse linear corridors.

Learning objectives:

Understand the complexity and opportunities of greenway, blueway, and trail planning in the United States.
Learn how three varied corridor projects have authentically engaged community voices across diverse geographies, political boundaries, and cultures spanning hundreds of miles.
Explore different approaches to establishing a cohesive vision and design/graphic identity across linear corridors, and understand steps toward implementation.
Consider alternative models for operations, governance, and stewardship of linear corridors that provide both clarity and funding to implement bold vision strategically.

Justine Heilner, ASLA, PLA, WEDG

Capital Planning Manager/Lead Landscape Architect

New York Power Authority/ New York State Canal Corporation

Justine is a landscape architect and Capital Planning Manager at the New York State Canal Corporation and New York Power Authority. Her work focuses on transforming historic (yet still working) infrastructure into public-facing recreation space for the State of New York. Along the way she is working with the teams that operate and manage the canal and trail systems to address improving biodiversity and sustainability through new approaches to vegetation management and land-use decision-making. Justine comes to this position from a career focusing on public-realm design and management in both the private and non-profit/public sector.

Kate Tooke, ASLA, PLA

Principal

Agency Landscape and Planning

Kate Tooke, a landscape architect and principal of Agency Landscape + Planning, has focused her career on the intersection of community and public space. She leverages a diverse background as an educator, an engineer and a landscape architect into a practice unabashedly passionate about connecting people to the urban environment. Kate’s listening-oriented approach to project leadership as well as her strategic thinking, design eye, and technical acumen have been instrumental in the success of diverse projects ranging from master-planning to site-scale work and extending coast-to-coast. She is a prominent national voice in the movement towards contextual adventure playgrounds.

Whitney Tidd, ASLA, PLA

Planning & Design Manager

Tennessee RiverLine

Whitney Tidd is a Planning and Design Manager for the Tennessee RiverLine. Whitney earned her Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Tennessee and is a licensed landscape architect. She has worked on projects across the southeast including regional parks, transportation corridors, and residential communities, all focusing on sensitivity to natural and historical context. Whitney’s role with the RiverLine is to work alongside river communities to help discover their unique potential for river access and activation, develop conceptual designs for new river amenities, facilitate community design workshops, and implement local visions for a connected system of outdoor recreation assets.