Niche to Newsworthy: Amplifying Landscape Architecture’s Reach - 1.25 PDH (LA CES/non-HSW)

Recorded On: 10/10/2025

This practice-oriented session presents strategies for landscape architects to compellingly communicate their work. In a discussion about the changing media landscape, public relations, communications, and marketing, the panelists will address ways to expand landscape architecture visibility. Participants can expect to learn actionable approaches to connecting their work with target audiences.

Learning objectives:

Learn strategies to effectively communicate the principles and projects of landscape architecture to diverse, general audiences.
Understand best practices to pitch landscape architecture stories to media outlets.
Develop techniques to use marketing channels (social media, websites, newsletters) to bolster the visibility of landscape architecture projects and to reinforce the positioning of landscape architecture firms.
Learn approaches to storytelling designed to connect with different audience types, including fellow landscape architects, general-interest readers/viewers, environmental/climate-focused groups, technical experts, and academics.

Gina Ford, FASLA

Principal and Co-Founder

Agency Landscape + Planning

Gina Ford is a landscape architect, co-founder and principal of Agency Landscape + Planning. Underpinning her nearly thirty years of practice are a commitment to the design and planning of public places and the perpetuation of the value of landscape architecture via thought leadership, teaching, writing, and lecturing. Her work has received awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association, and the American Institute of Architects, among others.

Jackson Rollings

Director of Communications, Associate Principal

SWA

Jackson Rollings is Director of Communications and Associate Principal at SWA, a global landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm with eight studios across the U.S. and China. Based in New York, he previously led comms at SCAPE and other design firms, non-profits, and publications in New York and Louisiana, focused primarily on large-scale climate adaptation and resilience planning. His work, which has secured coverage across national, trade, and broadcast outlets, melds digital strategy, traditional public relations, and a keen eye for business development and relationship-building. In all his work, he draws on a deep research interest in climate policy.

John Gendall

Founding Principal

Chapter

John Gendall is a founding principal of Chapter, a New York-based strategic communications agency specializing in landscape architecture, architecture, and design. He is a veteran of design journalism, having contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker, Architectural Digest, Landscape Architecture Magazine, and Metropolis. He has taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design, Pratt Institute, and Parsons The New School for Design. John earned his Masters in Design Studies from Harvard Graduate School of Design.