Three-time alum Fritz Steiner, MRP’77, MA’86, PhD’86, who returned to his alma mater to serve as dean and Paley Professor at the Weitzman School in 2016, is the recipient of the 2024 LAF Medal. The medal is one of only two awards given annually by the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) and one of the highest honors in the landscape architecture profession.

According to the LAF, the medal is awarded to a landscape architect for “distinguished work over a career in applying the principles of sustainability to landscapes.” Honorees are said to exemplify the values of LAF and have made a significant contribution to the advancement of the landscape architecture discipline. The honor was launched in 2016 in conjunction with LAF’s 50th anniversary, along with the Founders’ Award, also given annually.

In the LAF’s announcement, Dean Steiner is described as “a compassionate and visionary leader who celebrates the potential of landscape architecture to make cities and regions more ecologically productive and sustainable.”

Previous LAF Medal recipients include Weitzman alum and founding principal of Andropogon Associates, Ltd. Carol Franklin, MLA’65, and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander.

Internationally revered for articulating and disseminating the principles of ecological design, Dean Steiner serves as co-executive director of the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology, which he co-founded with Richard Weller in 2019. He has written, edited, or co-edited 21 books, including The Living Landscape: An Ecological Approach to Landscape Planning; Urban Ecological Design: A Process for Regenerative Places; Nature and Cities: The Ecological Imperative in Urban Design and Planning; and Design with Nature Now.

Before coming to Penn, Dean Steiner helped establish the Sustainable SITES Initiative, the first program of its kind to offer a systematic, comprehensive rating system designed to define sustainable land development and management, and holds the SITES Professional (SITES AP) credential.

The LAF Medal will be presented at the 2024 LAF Symposium and Dinner this summer.