Richard Weller, a professor of landscape architecture in the Weitzman School and co-executive director of the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism & Ecology, was presented with the inaugural LAF Legacy Award at the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s June 14 annual awards event.

The LAF Legacy Award was created in 2023 by the LAF to recognize past members of the LAF Board of Directors who provided extraordinary service and contributions to the organization and its legacy. Mr. Weller served on the LAF board from 2014 to 2018 and was recognized for “help[ing] the organization turn ideas into action.”

Among Mr. Weller’s contributions to the field cited by the LAF were his role in organizing LAF’s 2016 Summit on Landscape Architecture and the Future and the resulting new landscape declaration. Mr. Weller also conceptualized the Green New Deal Superstudio and served on its core planning team. The superstudio, which ran from 2020 to 2021, was an open call to design schools, professional practices, individuals, and others to translate the core goals of the Green New Deal (decarbonization, justice, and jobs) into design and planning projects. Some 670 projects were submitted by over 90 universities in 39 states and 10 countries—including Penn—as well as hundreds of practitioners from across the design disciplines.

“We are forever grateful for Richard’s service and dedication to LAF, and for bringing the hopes and aspirations of the discipline together in clear and impactful ways,” said LAF CEO Barbara Deutsch.

“Through its programs and events, particularly in the last decade or so, the LAF has confronted the issues of the times and connected those issues to design intelligence across all scales in both practical and visionary ways,” Mr. Weller said. “Being on the board is a labor of love and all the board members, along with the LAF staff, are the ones we should thank.”