Society & Culture

UGA to host national student landscape architecture conference

Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia College of Environment and Design will host LABash, a national student landscape architecture conference March 21-23 at the Jackson Street Building.

The conference will feature guest speakers, panel discussions, workshops, expos and social events. Speakers include alumni Lawrie Jordan, director of imagery for ESRI, a Geographic Information Systems mapping software; and Bruce Rado, retired founder and vice president ERDAS Inc., whose software transforms geospatial data into information for landscape planning. Over 400 students and professionals from around the country are expected to attend.

Specialized workshops including GIS and graphics will be offered. The graphics courses will cover hand and computer applications such as Vectorworks and Land F/X. The workshops are designed for all skill levels.

Tours at the conference include an Athens garden tour, an Athens Food Tour, a Bartlett Tree Experts tour and campus sustainability tours highlighting the UGArden and historic north campus.

Unique to this year’s conference, a design-build charrette will be held in the Athens community. On Friday, students will design an outdoor recreation space for an Athens Habitat for Humanity site, then present and construct their design solutions Saturday.

“It is an honor for UGA’s College of Environment and Design to host LABash 2013,” said Sydney Thompson, a fifth year landscape architecture student serving as registration coordinator on the LABash committee. “This annual conference gives landscape architecture students from around the country the unique opportunity to meet each other and professionals and interact for an entire weekend. It is also a great excuse for the CED to show off its brand new LEED certified building rehabilitation on Jackson Street.”

The LABash conference has been held since 1970. It was last at the University of Georgia in 1985.

For more information, see http://labash2013.com.