After COVID-19, What’s Next for Landscape Architecture?

The urban crisis brings many challenges, but also presents opportunities for landscape architects to help build more equitable green spaces and cities.

After COVID-19, What’s Next for Landscape Architecture?
Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston, by SWA. Courtesy Jonnu Singleton Buffalo Bayou Park in Houston, by SWA. Courtesy Jonnu Singleton

The urban crisis brings many challenges, but also presents opportunities for landscape architects to help build more equitable green spaces and cities.

As a Los Angeles resident who doesn’t drive, navigating the city on foot and bike has always made me feel like I have the whole place to myself.

But over the last two months, Angelenos have been freckling the streets—it’s like they’ve all discovered for the first time that they’re capable of exploring this city without a car. While most beaches and trails in the city were shuttered (they have since re-opened), I noticed the LA River becoming the city’s new “it spot” for socially distant hangouts. And in a city that lacks adequate public parks, people are turning any patch of grass or sidewalk—whether it’s an elementary school yard, a traffic median, or a bit of concrete next to a parking lot—into a bit of respite from the madness.

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