James Corner, MLA’86, founder and CEO of James Corner Field Operations, a professor emeritus of landscape architecture in the Weitzman School of Design, and past chair of the department of landscape architecture, has earned the ASLA Design Medal for 2023 from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Alumnus Alkis Tsolakis, BA’70, professor of architecture and dean of the LSU College of Art & Design who received his undergraduate degree in fine arts from Penn, earned an honorary membership in the ASLA.

Since earning his Master of Landscape Architecture degree in 1986, Mr. Corner has devoted his career to advancing the field of landscape architecture and urbanism, primarily through his leadership on high-visibility, complex urban projects around the world, as well as through teaching, public speaking (including a keynote at the Weitzman School’s 2021 Commencement Ceremony), and writing. His firm’s projects include New York’s High Line; Seattle’s Central Waterfront; San Francisco’s Presidio Tunnel Tops; Chicago’s Navy Pier; London’s South Park Plaza at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park; Hong Kong’s Victoria Dockside; and Shenzhen’s new development of Qianhai.

In a statement published by the ASLA, Mr. Corner described the opportunity for today’s practitioners to contribute to the public good as unprecedented. “Landscape architecture has probably never had so much to offer society than it does today,” he said. “The field’s capacity to work creatively with complex natural systems combined with social experience, public space, and community, places it squarely in the vanguard of today’s built environment and urbanization.”

Mr. Corner joined the faculty in the department of landscape architecture at Penn in 1989 and was the department chair from 2000 through 2012. Among his many other honors, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2021 (Almanac March 30, 2021).

Currently a professor of architecture and dean of the LSU College of Art & Design, Alkis Tsolakis was a founding faculty member of the Hammons School of Architecture at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, where he held several administrative posts and was acting director of the art department. He has practiced architecture and sculpture in Greece, France, and the United States. He was a founder and director of the Drury University Center in Greece and the head of the department of architecture at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. He currently serves as the interim director of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture.

The eight honorary members inducted by ASLA are non-landscape architecture professionals recognized for notable service to the profession. Since its founding in 1899, ASLA has inducted only 255 honorary members. The honorees are selected by ASLA’s board of trustees. Announced on June 13, the 2023 recipients are documented on the ASLA website with letters of nomination and portfolios.

Founded in 1899, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is the professional association for landscape architects in the United States, representing more than 15,000 members. ASLA’s mission is empowering its members to design a sustainable and equitable world through landscape architecture.