First held in 1990, this annual two-day symposium has long presented ecology-based landscape design programs for professional practitioners. Presenters reflect the diverse factors that shape our landscapes including landscape architects, landscape designers, horticulturists, ecologists, historians, anthropologists, artists and others. From theory to practical application, the series explores forward-looking and frequently overlooked landscape topics. Join us as we continue to connect the dots between ecological restoration, cultural landscape practice, and fine garden design.


Our event this year will include a varied group of presenters from Gerould Wilhelm, who developed a highly regarded technique for vegetative site analysis; to Wagon Landscaping, a French landscape architecture firm whose innovative gardening approaches apply both regionally and globally.

Thursday & Friday
January 9-10, 2025
Temple University Ambler Campus, Ambler, PA

in partnership with
Morris Arboretum & Gardens

Speakers Sponsor:

Hospitality Sponsor:

Dates & Locations

Thursday & Friday
January 16-17, 2025
Connecticut College, New London, CT

in partnership with
Connecticut College Arboretum

Thursday & Friday
January 16-17, 2024
Livestream (Virtual Only)

Recordings & CEUs

Recording of full program (CT venue) will be available mid-January and viewable for 3 months to all attendees
(PA & CT in-person and virtual attendees).

CEUs available - stay tuned for details & instructions
12 CEU hours for most types
Anticipated CEUs: APLD, CBLP, CT DEEP, ISA, LA CES, NOFA, PLNA, SER

Temple University Ambler is not affiliated with this event and should not be contacted regarding the program.

We thank our Symposium Sponsors!

Scholarships Sponsor:

Fees

Regular Rate (in-person & virtual)

$370 if registered by Dec. 11, 2024
$395 if registered after Dec. 11, 2024

Student Rate - with ID (in-person & virtual)

$200 if registered by Dec. 11, 2024
$225 if registered after Dec. 11, 2024

Register by:
Jan. 2, 2025 (PA location)
Jan. 9, 2025 (CT location)
Jan. 15, 2025 (Virtual only)

Scroll down for program details

Student Scholarships - Apply Here

Day 1

Thursday, January 9 (PA) & 16 (CT)
Breakfast and check-in at 8:15 AM
Program begins at 9:00 AM
Adjourn at 5:00 PM

Photo by Michael Guidi

Light breakfast & lunch are included both days.
Evening reception immediately following the Day 1 program with complimentary wine, beer, and hors d’oeuvres.

Landscape Revival: Creative Responses to a Catastrophic Storm (1 hour)
Kathleen Salisbury, MS, MEd

In September of 2021, an EF 2 tornado catastrophically damaged the 187-acre Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. After losing more than 500 trees in their horticultural collection and hundreds more in the natural spaces, Kathy was faced with the question; how do you respond to an event that has destroyed your living laboratory in minutes? After a brief history of the Ambler Arboretum, Kathy will discuss the process of recovery that continues to this day including planting, tree resilience, and spontaneous vegetative regeneration. She will also share her future vision for a natural space that has been changed forever, a subject with obvious relevance in this tumultuous era of climate change.

Knockout Natives (1 hour 15 min.)
Sam Hoadley

Join Sam Hoadley, the Manager of Horticultural Research at Mt. Cuba Center, as he highlights some of the top performing species and cultivars from Mt. Cuba’s extensive native plant trials. He will discuss the horticultural and ecological performance of several genera including Phlox, Echinacea, Hydrangea, Amsonia, and Vernonia. Special focus will be given to Carex, a genus with “game changing” potential in a wide variety of landscape contexts. In addition, Sam will discuss pollinator utilization of cultivars, nursery availability, and how to consider regional variations in plant trial performance at Mt. Cuba and other institutions.

Land as a Relation: Supporting Indigenous Connections/Reconnection and our Obligations to Truth and Healing (1 hour)
Paul Fragua & José de Jesús Leal, PLA, ASLA, IA

Much of the Indigenous Identity, and history are land centered. This storytelling session will define essential connections between the land and subsistence lifeways. It will identify how we can help restore, protect, reclaim, and help support the revitalization of Indigenous culture, language, knowledge, and ceremonies through critical partnerships and policies, while healing the land and people. Finally, the presenters will participate in an open discussion on where indigenous practice can and should influence the practices of landscape gardening and landscape restoration.

In Pursuit of the Mesh: Reflections on Designing the Intermingled (1 hour)
Matt Dallos, Ph.D.

Wild plant assemblages often grow into biodiverse, ever-shifting fabrics of intermingled individuals. By discussing historical and contemporary efforts to translate this quality to built environments, Matt will explore this design concept as a timely and compelling approach in ecological planting design. Select projects by Thicket Workshop, a plant-focused design firm that works in the Northeast, will be reviewed to spark conversation about the application of “the mesh” within the practical demands of a design practice.

Disruption and Connection: Four Landscape Non-Fictions (1 hour)
Maura Rockcastle, PLA, ASLA (PA only) / Ross Altheimer, PLA, ASLA, FAAR (CT only)

TEN x TEN is a transdisciplinary landscape architecture and urban design practice grounded by a shared curiosity and passion for experimentation, storytelling, and agency. As a values and mission-driven practice, we co-create compassionate, immersive, and resilient spaces that confront the issues of our time. We will share stories of disruption and connection (ecological, cultural, and spatial) through the lens of four projects: a former steel Mill in Pittsburgh, a restored prairie on a US Military Fort on Dakota Homeland, a transformed monorail through a 485-acre zoo, and a public art installation that connects visitors to the reality of climate change through the story of birds.

Panel Discussion: How Do Culture and Ecology Interact? (45 minutes)
Matt Dallos, Paul Fragua, José de Jesús Leal, Maura Rockcastle (PA only) / Ross Altheimer (CT only)

Culture, both historic and contemporary, is a thread that runs through all of our panelists' presentations. In this session they will compare notes on how cultural considerations influence their work. They will also engage with symposium participants on this topic, and any others that the presentations have stimulated. 

Day 2

Friday, January 10 (PA) & 17 (CT)
Breakfast and check-in at 8:30 AM
Program begins at 9:00 AM
Adjourn at 5:00 PM

Photo by Bryant Baker

Light breakfast & lunch are included both days.

Landscape at Hand Scale (1 hour 15 min.)
Mathieu Gontier & François Vadepied

From studio to site, from observation to realization, and from planting to maintaining, Mathieu and François will emphasize the gardener attitude that is part and parcel of their projects. Moving from plants to materials, they will discuss where the sensible line falls between emission-heavy construction and a material-reuse approach. Overall they will demonstrate how we can change our engagement with landscape, program, transformation, and maintenance to help create tomorrow’s cities that give hope for a resilient future.

Floristic Assessment of Natural Landscapes (1 hour 15 min.)
Gerould Wilhelm, Ph.D.

Gerould Wilhelm is one of North America’s most accomplished botanists. He invented the landscape assessment tool, Floristic Quality Assessment, which provides landscape practitioners with an objective-oriented decision tree that can inform potential habitat modifications, future management adjustments, and an ability to monitor those impacts. Initially presented in the 1970s, this tool has since been developed for most regions in North America and several in Europe. Attendees will discover the fundamental ecological realities that govern our culture’s relationship with landscapes around us, and discover that an analysis of existing plant arrays in specific landscape contexts can guide a rational plan for landscape restoration and stewardship.

Remnant Prairies and Grassland Restoration in the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont (1 hour 10 min.)
Bert Harris, Ph.D.

Harris will begin by covering the Clifton Institute’s recent research which found that remnant Piedmont prairies are the most diverse plant communities in Virginia; even more diverse than Midwestern tallgrass prairies. He’ll then talk about the Institute’s 100-acre grassland restoration experiment that is testing eight different methods (e.g. fire, tilling, planting, herbicide) to convert non-native fields to native meadows. He’ll finish by discussing the Virginia Native Seed Project that has the goal of making seeds with local genetics available commercially for meadow plantings and roadside revegetation projects.

Informed Plant Selection to Support Pollinator and Songbird Conservation (1 hour 10 min.)
Desiree Narango, Ph.D.

The choice of plant species in landscaping and restoration plays a vital role in creating habitats where pollinators and other wildlife can thrive. In this talk, Dr. Desiree L. Narango will share insights from her research, past and present, exploring which plant species and traits are most effective in supporting pollinating insects and songbirds. In addition, information will include little-discussed but highly relevant aspects of habitat creation including multi-trophic plant-wildlife interactions, and habitat relationships of wildlife with specialized life histories. Finally, she will connect theory and application by revealing practical decision-support tools for making ecologically sound plant choices.

Shrouded in Light: Plantings Inspired by Wild Shrublands (1 hour 10 min.)
Michael Guidi & Kevin Philip Williams

Shrub-dominated plant communities exist all around us. Unlike meadows and woodlands however, they are rarely included in designed landscapes as a distinct community type. Beyond their inherent beauty these ecosystems provide crucial wildlife habitat, resilience in the face of a changing climate, and visual legibility for visitors through their distinct distribution patterns. Join the authors of Shrouded in Light: Naturalistic Planting Inspired by Wild Shrublands (Filbert Press US 2024) as they explore the ecological significance, design strategies, and practical planting approaches to this crucial - yet often neglected - ecosystem component.

Speakers

NDAL gratefully acknowledges Pleasant Run Nursery for its sponsorship of our speaker fees.

Ross Altheimer, PLA, ASLA, FAAR co-founded TEN x TEN in 2015 where he is building and collaborating with a team of the most curious and joyful humans who are committed to transforming communities and institutions through transdisciplinary practice. As a landscape architect, his work explores the art, complexity, and temporality of place and culture. He believes that transformative design emerges from deep ways of knowing, storytelling, and the authenticity of people and places. He takes play seriously and has been known to draw landscapes while running marathons, and studies the bees that nap in his native gardens at home.

Matt Dallos, Ph.D. is a designer and environmental historian. He is the founder of Thicket Workshop, a design firm that creates plant-focused landscapes in the Northeast. Matt’s essays have been published in Places and Chinese Landscape Architecture. Matt received an MS in landscape architecture from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in environmental history from Cornell University.

Paul Fragua is a fire keeper, runner, translator, and interpreter. He is keeping the fires of Tribal sovereignty and self-determination burning through his life’s work in MIG’s Native Nation Building Studio; as well as giving voice to the voiceless and bringing visibility to the invisible. He has over 40 years of Native community outreach, community planning and development experience. He is a professional registered architect (inactive) and a Citizen of the Pueblo of Jemez.

Mathieu Gontier is a landscape architect and co-founder of Wagon Landscaping. He has an initial training in the Arts and Russian language. With this background he graduated as a landscape architect in 2007, exploring relationships between art and landscape. He employs the use of drawing as a tool for reflection and projects. He is a teacher at the Versailles School of Landscape where he teaches landscape and is responsible for studies of Marseille. He is co-responsible for the development of the agency and project management.

Michael Guidi is an ecologist and horticulture researcher in the horticulture department of Denver Botanic Gardens. He is passionate about naturalistic plantings that embody the flexibility and resiliency of wild systems. His work draws inspiration from liminal urban spaces and wild areas alike. Preferring common and weedy plants to the rare and precious, Michael is a proponent of dynamic, self-sustaining gardens and green infrastructure as alternatives to static high-maintenance landscaping. His research links ecological theory with horticultural techniques and designs to broaden the definition of gardens and gardening. Prior to joining Denver Botanic Gardens, Michael worked as a field biologist. He holds an MS degree in Ecology from the Graduate Degree Program in Ecology at Colorado State University and a BS degree in Biology from Ithaca College.

Bert Harris, Ph.D. is a Co-Director of the Clifton Institute, a nature center and research station on 900 acres in rural northern Virginia. At the Institute, Harris directs a program of ecological research that has the goal of providing actionable recommendations to landowners. He is also a passionate land manager and native-plant gardener, and he works with his team and local landowners to restore native plant and animal communities. He holds a B.S. in Ecology and Biodiversity from Sewanee: The University of the South and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Sam Hoadley is the Manager of Horticultural Research at Mt. Cuba Center where he evaluates native plant species, old and new cultivars, and hybrids in the Trial Garden. When Sam is not in the gardens he can be found working as a liaison with the mid-Atlantic horticultural and nursery community to help promote the use of beautiful and ecologically valuable plants from Mt. Cuba’s evaluations. Sam grew up in East Granby Connecticut where his passion for plants and the natural world grew and led him to the pursuit of his degree in Sustainable Landscape Horticulture and at the University of Vermont.

José de Jesús Leal, PLA, ASLA, IA is a truth-teller and a landscape architect who considers laughter good medicine. His personal and professional journeys have always been spiritual - guided by the understanding that he is still a student with a deep passion for learning. As Director of MIG’s Native Nation Building Studio, his work focuses on the power of co-creation and inclusive community-based design and planning that is culturally sensitive. José uses landscape architecture to uncover, explore, and reflect hidden truths that can lead to healing, restoration, and a better path forward.

Desiree L. Narango, Ph.D. is a conservation biologist at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies (VCE) in White River Junction, VT. Desiree’s research focuses on biodiversity conservation and habitat restoration in the face of global change. She primarily studies plants, insects, and birds with a particular focus on multi-trophic interactions, habitat relationships of wildlife with specialized life histories, and mechanistic approaches to applied ecology. Before joining VCE, she was a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a postdoctoral fellow at City University of New York. She completed her Ph.D. in Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, an MS in Natural Resources from the Ohio State University, and a BS in Environmental Biology from SUNY: ESF.

Kevin Philip Williams is a naturalistic gardener who collaborates with active and passive materials to create dynamic and challenging worlds. His unique style combines bioregional plant palettes, a hardcore punk ethos, and post-human aesthetics to craft wild and captivating spaces. Kevin's extensive work with Denver Botanic Gardens has led to the creation of celebrated public gardens throughout the city. Kevin was a Gardener on The High Line in Manhattan and studied as a Horticulture Intern at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. He holds an MS degree in Public Horticulture from the Longwood Graduate Program at the University of Delaware and a BA degree in The History and Philosophy of Science from Bard College.

Maura Rockcastle, PLA, ASLA is a landscape architect, co-founder, and principal of TEN x TEN. With a background in printmaking and sculpture, Maura balances a rigorous approach to leadership and design innovation with a conceptual sensibility rooted in process. Maura’s professional experience is focused on cultural, institutional, and complex public realm projects. Her work has received national awards for design excellence, preservation, and innovation. In 2015 she co-founded TEN x TEN to build a practice committed to horizontal co-authorship, radical transparency, and curiosity. 

Kathleen V. Salisbury, MS, MEd is the Director of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, where she is also an adjunct instructor teaching woody plant identification and landscape management. Kathy has worked toward natural disaster recovery after an EF2 tornado catastrophically damaged the Ambler Arboretum in 2021. Kathy has been fascinated and delighted by the natural world around her ever since she was young, exploring the pine barrens of her southern NJ home. Never losing that passion, Kathy earned a BS in Ornamental Horticulture and Environmental Design from Delaware Valley University and an MS in Public Horticulture Management from the University of Delaware where she was a Longwood Fellow. After more than two decades in various horticultural and educational roles from adjunct professor to zoo horticulturist, Kathy is an award-winning educator and public horticulture leader. 

François Vadepied is a landscape architect and co-founder of Wagon Landscaping. He received his initial diploma in geophysics and cartography at the National Institute of Geography. In 2003, after fifteen years in the digital cartography field, he decided to radically change his work. He graduated as a landscape architect in 2007. In 2018, he became State Landscape Architect Consultant in the Meurthe-et-Moselle Department. He teaches at the National School of Landscape of Versailles and at Esaj, in Paris. He is co-responsible for the development of the agency and project management.

Gerould Wilhelm, Ph.D. is a botanist and co-author of Flora of the Chicago Region: A Floristic and Ecological Synthesis (Indiana Academy of Science 2017) with Laura Rericha. The book details the plants and plant communities of the 22-county Chicago Region along with their attendant animal and fungal associates. His doctoral degree included a compilation of the vascular flora of the western Florida panhandle and extreme southwestern Alabama. Currently researching the 54-county southern Lake Michigan region lichen flora, he invented the landscape assessment tool, Floristic Quality Assessment. Its first iterations presented in the 1970s, this tool has been developed since then for most regions and states in North America and several in Europe.



This is an impactful and always thoughtful forum that lifts our field to the more holistic perspective it begs for, and leads our thinking in ‘new directions.’
— 2024 Symposium Attendee
This is the best conference I’ve attended. For the money, the quality/diversity of speakers and the applicability to daily life, this conference can’t be beat. Keep up the great work!
— 2024 Symposium Attendee
The common ground that was woven between all speakers of different areas of expertise was inspiring.
— 2024 Symposium Attendee

Registration & Portal

When registering on the NDAL Participants Portal you will be asked to either sign into your existing account or create one. This account will give you exclusive access to the session recordings and course materials. These materials will be available until three (3) months after the live event dates.

Group Orders: To register multiple people/staff members at once, go to your chosen course, click Register, then enter the number of registrations needed under Quantity on the left side. You will receive an email with an invite link to send to all the registrants in your group. Please note if you are registering yourself as well, you will NOT be automatically registered under a Group Order; you will also need to click the invite link to redeem your registration.

Gift Orders: To purchase a course as a gift for someone else, go to your chosen course, click Register, then check off “This is a gift.”

Registration will be refunded only if notification is received before ten (10) working days prior to the live event date less a $10 processing fee.

Students and recent graduates are invited to apply for scholarships granting free admission to the Symposium. Four scholarships will be awarded - two per venue (or virtual if desired). The scholarships honor Darrel Morrison, FASLA, Senior Honorary Faculty Associate, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture and Glenn Dreyer, Connecticut College Arboretum Director Emeritus.

Eligibility: Current undergraduate/graduate student or matriculation in 2024.

Application deadline: December 2, 2024.

Recipients notified by: December 9, 2024.
Applicants will be notified by December 9 so that anyone who is not selected has time to register for early-bird admission, which ends on December 11.

Apply here

Student Scholarship – Free Symposium Admission 

Photo by Gina Vecchione Photography


I am always delighted. You seem to outdo yourselves each year.
— 2024 Symposium Attendee

Contact

Registration, NDAL Portal, & Virtual Only Questions:

Alyssa Calderone Prevost
Programs & Administrative Associate
New Directions in the American Landscape
info@ndal.org
510-518-0430

Pennsylvania, January 9-10, 2025 Questions:

Stephanie Bruneau
Assistant Director of Adult Education
Morris Arboretum & Gardens
sbruneau@upenn.edu
215-247-5777 Ext: 156

Connecticut, January 16-17, 2025 Questions:

Scott D'Agostino
Assistant Director
Connecticut College Arboretum
sdagostin@conncoll.edu
860-439-5020


Symposium Partners


Symposium Sponsors

Sponsorships available - expand your reach!

Expand your company’s reach among landscape professionals and sponsor the Symposium!

*Please note: The Symposium sponsorship program is solely administered and associated with New Directions in the American Landscape (NDAL). Sponsorship of the symposium is exclusively an exchange for goods and services and does not impart any tax-deductible benefits. Neither the University of Pennsylvania nor Connecticut College Arboretum are accepting donations for this sponsorship.