Free. In Person.

Outdoor maker space to build and play

Hands-on Workshop at City Hall Annex Plaza, 344 Broadway, Cambridge. Outdoor maker space to build and play. Refreshments.

See how play spaces take shape, from first sketch to finished structures, in a hands-on exhibition of playground design by Cambridge artist Mitch Ryerson at Cambridge Arts’ Gallery 344, 344 Broadway, Cambridge, from Sept. 21 to Dec. 31, 2026.

See more here.

Western Mass AIA seeks to celebrate landscape design excellence

WMAIA Celebration of Architecture and Design Awards Program Call for Entries

For firms based in Western Mass practicing anywhere

For projects sitedin Western Mass by firms from anywhere

In partnership with the Western Mass Section of BSLA, this longstanding bi-annual program of the WMAIA aims to encourage and recognize distinguished architectural and landscape design achievement and honor the project team - including the clients and consultants who work together to improve the built environment. Keep reading...

Early bird discount through September 25

All materials due by October 16

Members + non-members welcome!

READ THE CALL FOR ENTRIES

Register Here

Use code EARLY to save $25 by registering your project by September 25th.  Submissions are due October 16th – there will be no extensions to this deadline.

Free. In person.

Zube Lectures are held every Thursday at 4:00 p.m. ET (unless otherwise noted) in the John W. Olver Design Building Lecture Hall (Room 170) at 551 North Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01002. Lecture recordings are posted to UMass LARP - YouTube following each event.

The annual lecture series of the UMass Amherst Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning continues with "UMass Amherst Planning Faculty and PhD Student Research," Zube Panel Discussion with Peter Dunn, Theodore Eisenman, and Paromita Shome.

See details on this lecture and the entire series here.

Online.

This is the monthly meeting of BSLA’s elected Executive Committee (“ExComm”), Section chairs, Student chapter leaders, and Committee leaders. All members from Maine and Massachuetts are welcome to attend.

This typically takes place on the third Thursday of the month.

The regular agenda includes brief updates, questions, and calls-to-action from each of the leaders and the work that they represent, along with longer discussions on special topics. If you have a topic to bring to an ExComm meeting, please email BSLA President, Michelle Crowley.

It’s our regular, essential moment to connect and coordinate our activities across Mass & Maine, AND our means to collaboratively discuss questions, issues, and other important things.

The 2026 Zoom link is here. Email Gretchen to be added to the calendar invite. Join us!

Master in Design Studies presents: BUILDING POSTCARBON FUTURES: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions

Billy Fleming (Temple University) in conversation with Holly Jean Buck (University at Buffalo) and Abby Spinak (GSD)

Charles Waldheim, host

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2026, 12:00 PM | GUND HALL, LOEB LIBRARY

Building Postcarbon Futures asks: what would a postcarbon future look like? What would it take to build and maintain a more just, regenerative world? How would it feel to live—and to thrive—in that world? Around the globe, people are transforming their social, ecological, and economic systems in response to the climate crisis. This book guides readers through 29 of these exemplary works, which span 43 nations and six continents. From Cuba to Kiribati, Iceland to the Andes, the prairies of North America to the expanding Gobi Desert, these case studies foreground the tactics and modes of practice being employed, often by marginalized peoples, to create more humane, hospitable places. With dispatches from more than a dozen leading scholars working on the front lines of the climate justice movement, Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions is both a celebration of action underway and a clarion call to the planners, designers, policymakers, and activists who are pushing this planet toward a future of collective flourishing.

Billy Fleming is an interdisciplinary scholar of climate justice. He is the co-founder and strategic co-director of the Climate and Community Institute, a progressive think tank that works with movements and elected officials to mobilize cutting-edge research on climate, economy, and everyday life.

Holly Jean Buck is a sociologist investigating the social, ethical, and political dimensions of emerging climate and energy policies. She envisions governance structures for a wide range of climate responses, from rural place-based efforts in natural resource management and clean energy to global-scale climate interventions, like solar radiation modification and carbon removal.

In person. Free.

Join us outside!

The Emerging Professionals invite you to a fall hike in Charles Eliot's "wilderness reserve"

RSVP here

Our 2026 series continues in Milton, Massachusetts... a fall hike in the Blue Hills!

This hike will focus on the botany and plants of this landscape today, informed by the history of this special place.

This tour will be led by

Yasser Aponte, Friends of the Blue Hills

Organized the BSLA Emerging Professionals and Friends of the Blue Hills, all are welcome!

ABOUT THE BLUE HILLS RESERVATION

From the Massachusetts Department of Recreation & Conservation:

Located only minutes from the bustle of downtown Boston, the DCR Blue Hills Reservation stretches over 7,000 acres from Quincy to Dedham, Milton to Randolph, providing a green oasis in an urban environment. Rising above the horizon, Great Blue Hill reaches a height of 635 feet, the highest of the 22 hills in the Blue Hills chain. From the rocky summit visitors can see over the entire metropolitan area. With its scenic views, varied terrain and 125 miles of trails, the Blue Hills Reservation offers year-round enjoyment for the outdoor enthusiast.

From Digital Commonwealth:

Charles Eliot was instrumental in the acquisition of the Blue Hills Reservation by the Metropolitan Park Commission in 1893. He believed that the reservation’s “wildness” offered a counterpoint to Boston’s intentionally manicured urban parks, such as the Public Garden.

When the fledgling Metropolitan Park Commission acquired the Blue Hills and three other reservations, Park Commissioner Herbert S. Carruth declared, “There will be no attempt made to beautify them. We shall not even own a lawn mower.”

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This tour will meet at Houghton's Pond. Visitor parking is free at the Houghton's Pond parking lot. MBTA bus 716 stops at Houghton's Pond.

All are welcome.

Members and non-members, coworkers + students, friends + families + kids.

To those of you in the early years of your career -- this is especially for you!

Tickets are FREE, tour size limited, registration appreciated. Please come dressed for the weather, prepared to walk outside on uneven terrain.

We aim to go in most weather. We will email all ticket holders and post any changes here.

We look forward to exploring with you!

Learn more and RSVP here.

IMAGES

At top, from The Cultural Landscape Foundation, courtesy Friends of the Blue Hills, 2016

Above, black and white photo from the National Park Service, Olmsted Archives

Color photos by Harvard GSD Professor Anita Berrizbeitia, FASLA.

Below map from Digital Commonwealth:

This map, created by the Park Commission in 1905, uses hachures to show the “bold” elevation changes that Eliot celebrated for their panoramic views.

Online.

This is an informal, monthly drop-in Zoom meeting of landscape architecture firm owners and leaders. 

Our goal is to create a space where New England landscape architecture firm owners and leaders can connect, commiserate, compare notes, and hopefully laugh a little with your peers in this community.

There is no fixed agenda, but we will start with a few discussion prompts and then you can take the conversation wherever you want to go. 

Questions or topics to discuss? contact BSLA President & Crowley Cottrell firm owner, Michelle Crowley.

Do you want to receive the monthly calendar invite? email Gretchen.

Here’s the Zoom link for 2026.

Free. In person.

Zube Lectures are held every Thursday at 4:00 p.m. ET (unless otherwise noted) in the John W. Olver Design Building Lecture Hall (Room 170) at 551 North Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01002. Lecture recordings are posted to UMass LARP - YouTube following each event.

The annual lecture series of the UMass Amherst Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning continues with "Land & Environmental Artists," Zube Panel Discussion.

See details on this lecture and the entire series here.

Online. Free. All welcome.

Join the Zoom

Our popular Firm Leaders / Owner's Zoom meetup has a new cousin: an online Zoom meetup for Solopreneurs!

This is a drop-in, come-as-you-are space to connect, commiserate, compare notes, and share a laugh with others who are also sole practitioners or leading tiny practices. Whether you recently went out on your own or have been doing this for decades, stop by and say hello.

This is a monthly thing. Members + non-members welcome. New England solo/small firms, this is a space for you.

To be added to the Google calendar invite, email Gretchen.

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In the photo: a solo plug from the Van Berkum Nursery Tour by solopreneur (and BSLA Plants Task Force Chair) April Maly.

2026 STORMWATER INNOVATION EXPO

Nature at Work – Water, Soil, Plants & Trees Protecting our Communities

When: Wednesday, October 7  8:30 AM - 3:30 PM

Where: Roger Williams Park Casino, 1000 Elmwood Ave, Cranston, RI 02907

Discover the latest trends in stormwater management technology and professional services at RI's only Stormwater Innovation Expo! Join the Rhode Island Green Infrastructure Coalition, the Stormwater Innovation Center, and the Providence Parks Department for the Eighth Annual Stormwater Innovation Expo- a day dedicated to the innovative products, practices, and partnerships shaping the design, construction, maintenance, and monitoring of green stormwater infrastructure across Rhode Island.

​Visit 2026 expo.eventbrite.com to register for this year's event!

Free. In Person.

See How Playground Structures Are Hand-Crafted By Cambridge Artist Mitch Ryerson

Cambridge Arts Exhibit Runs Sept. 21-Dec. 31, 2026

See how play spaces take shape, from first sketch to finished structures, in a hands-on exhibition of playground design by Cambridge artist Mitch Ryerson at Cambridge Arts’ Gallery 344, 344 Broadway, Cambridge, from Sept. 21 to Dec. 31, 2026.

Join us for a reception for the exhibition “Joyful Anarchy: Mitch Ryerson – Playgrounds" on Monday, Oct. 5, from 5 to 7 p.m. Visiting the gallery and all gallery events are always free and open to all.

In Person. Free.

Join the BSLA DEI Committee on a guided museum tour led by Michael A. Norton, PhD candidate in the Harvard University History of Art and Architecture Department, to learn how landscape and its visual representations were conceptualized and explored in pre-modern East Asian art. Through close examination of objects currently on display in the Harvard Art Museums, this gallery talk introduces important moments in the history of the Chinese and Japanese landscape traditions as they evolved across time and cultures. Space will be limited.

RSVP Here.

Free. In person.

Zube Lectures are held every Thursday at 4:00 p.m. ET (unless otherwise noted) in the John W. Olver Design Building Lecture Hall (Room 170) at 551 North Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01002. Lecture recordings are posted to UMass LARP - YouTube following each event.

The annual lecture series of the UMass Amherst Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning continues with "Greenfield Urban Planning in Africa," Zube Lecture Presented by Vernon Henderson.

See details on this lecture and the entire series here.

Online. Free. 1 AIA LU HSW.

Designing the modern sauna

Sauna is no longer a niche finish detail. It's a line item now, showing up in hospitality, multifamily, athletic, and corporate projects with increasing frequency. And the material conversation is changing alongside it: the traditional imported species are being reassessed on embodied carbon, IEQ performance, and supply chain reliability.

Join Alex Layoff, Owner of Finnish Sauna Builders, and Allison Palmer, Director of National Sales at Cambium, for a free one-hour course for architects, interior designers, builders, and specifiers on getting the sauna right, from species selection through electrical coordination.

Register Here.

In person on Cape Cod | September 29-30

We're pleased to invite you to the third Modern Living Symposium -- a bi-annual gathering of architects, landscape architects, and builders with a dedicated focus on residential design.

The Modern Living Symposium is an immersive two‑day event exploring the future of outdoor living. It offers insights from leading residential practitioners -- architects, landscape architects, and builders -- through educational sessions and hands-on learning labs that highlight innovative technologies, emerging trends, and native-driven design strategies.

Connect with residential industry experts and learn through interactive workshops, lectures, and exceptional networking. Held at AutoCamp, a unique coastal destination on Cape Cod at the edge of Buzzards Bay, with special opening sessions at the historic Highfield Hall.

Use code BSLA26 to save 20%

Get early bird rates while they last!

BSLA is the LACES + AIA continuing education provider for the symposium.

All education sessions have been approved for continuing ed credit. Participants are expected to earn up to 7.0 LACES and/or AIA credits over the two days.

Follow @ModernLivingSymposium to learn more about sessions, speakers, and the latest event details.

From our friends at UltiPlay:

Are you headed to ASLA in Los Angeles or NRPA in Philadelphia this year? If so, we'd love to invite you to our All-States Socials!

UltiPlay Parks & Playgrounds is teaming up with several of our national playground partners to host an evening of networking and fun at both conferences. It's a great chance to meet landscape architects and parks and recreation professionals from across the country. All are welcome, but RSVP is required!

All-States Social @ ASLA — Los Angeles

 September 15, 6 to 8 p.m.

 Tom's Watch Bar, 1011 S Figueroa St B101, Los Angeles, CA 90015

 RSVP at bit.ly/asla-allstatessocial

All-States Social @ NRPA — Philadelphia

 September 29, 4 to 6 p.m.

 F1 Arcade, 1330 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19107

 RSVP at bit.ly/nrpa-allstatessocial

In person on Cape Cod | September 29-30

We're pleased to invite you to the third Modern Living Symposium -- a bi-annual gathering of architects, landscape architects, and builders with a dedicated focus on residential design.

The Modern Living Symposium is an immersive two‑day event exploring the future of outdoor living. It offers insights from leading residential practitioners -- architects, landscape architects, and builders -- through educational sessions and hands-on learning labs that highlight innovative technologies, emerging trends, and native-driven design strategies.

Connect with residential industry experts and learn through interactive workshops, lectures, and exceptional networking. Held at AutoCamp, a unique coastal destination on Cape Cod at the edge of Buzzards Bay, with special opening sessions at the historic Highfield Hall.

Use code BSLA26 to save 20%

Get early bird rates while they last!

BSLA is the LACES + AIA continuing education provider for the symposium.

All education sessions have been approved for continuing ed credit. Participants are expected to earn up to 7.0 LACES and/or AIA credits over the two days.

Follow @ModernLivingSymposium to learn more about sessions, speakers, and the latest event details.

In Person. Free with Garden admission.

Boston Dance Theater (BDT) is thrilled to invite you to two upcoming environmental performances this September. Join us for Unfurling at the Art Complex on September 17 at 6:00 PM, free and open to all, and Solos for Native Species at Native Plant Trust on September 26, free with Garden admission.

• September 26, Garden Hours

• Native Plant Trust, 180 Hemenway Rd, Framingham, MA

• Free with Garden admission

• Event Details

Solos for Native Species invites audiences to experience immersive dance throughout Native Plant Trust’s beautiful Garden in the Forest. The program features four 20-minute solo works inspired by native plant species, performed throughout the Garden in different locations. The solos loop throughout the day, allowing guests to discover each work at their own pace and come and go freely during regular Garden hours.

Western Mass AIA seeks to celebrate landscape design excellence

WMAIA Celebration of Architecture and Design Awards Program Call for Entries

For firms based in Western Mass practicing anywhere

For projects sitedin Western Mass by firms from anywhere

In partnership with the Western Mass Section of BSLA, this longstanding bi-annual program of the WMAIA aims to encourage and recognize distinguished architectural and landscape design achievement and honor the project team - including the clients and consultants who work together to improve the built environment. Keep reading...

Early bird discount through September 25

All materials due by October 16

Members + non-members welcome!

READ THE CALL FOR ENTRIES

Register Here

Use code EARLY to save $25 by registering your project by September 25th.  Submissions are due October 16th – there will be no extensions to this deadline.

In Person.

Friday, September 25, 2026

9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. EST

Resilience Roulette: Reinvest or Run

What would you do after the big one hits?

Thousands of coastal residents and businesses have to navigate this decision. If you are hit with a big storm, do you rebuild? Walk away? How do you balance the need to “return to normalcy” and quickly recover from a disaster with the need to build back better? How do you manage limited resources? Go it alone or pool resources in a larger, improved recovery strategy?

The Boston Green Ribbon Commission (GRC) and Harvard Business School (HBS) created a game to give you a chance to explore the tradeoffs between speed of recovery, costs to recovery, and opportunity to rebuild and invest in resiliency within the post-disaster window.

We will play this interactive game in small groups followed by a rigorous debrief to name what we learned and how we might apply that learning to the real funding challenges we face in Boston and beyond. This conversation will directly contribute to the ongoing regional effort to unlock billions in federal investment in climate resilience projects that the City of Boston and US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have identified.

Learn More & Register Here

Free. In person.

Zube Lectures are held every Thursday at 4:00 p.m. ET (unless otherwise noted) in the John W. Olver Design Building Lecture Hall (Room 170) at 551 North Pleasant St, Amherst, MA 01002. Lecture recordings are posted to UMass LARP - YouTube following each event.

The annual lecture series of the UMass Amherst Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning continues with "SITTING STILL Documentary Film Screening & Discussion" Special Zube Event Hosted by UMass LARP, MA-APA, & BSLA

See details on this lecture and the entire series here.

Online. Free.

This is a quarterly Zoom meet up for landscape architects (or those trained as landscape architects), currently working in the public or nonprofit sector. This includes landscape architects/designers/planners working in city or town, state, or federal parks agencies as well as in other government departments or nonprofits — not in “regular” practice. We know that many of you face similar issues in your work. Many of you are The Only one of you who does what you do, too.

Our intent is to create space for this professional community to come together.

The topic of these meetings will shift depending on what you want to discuss. You do not need to be a BSLA or ASLA member to participate.

To join the Zoom, click here.

If you’d like to be added to the calendar invite, email Gretchen.

Pictured: Jessie Waisnor and Alexandra Vecchio, landscape architects with the Town of Brookline, lead a BSLA Inside/Out tour of new & historic Brookline public spaces, October 2023

Online.

The relatively new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee of BSLA aims to foster a network of welcoming support focused on people of color and other minorities within and beyond the organization.

Given current events, this is necessary now more than ever.

What’s on your mind? What’s your lived experience? What do you/your colleagues need? How can we act together?

Members + non-members, students and recent graduates to seasoned leaders are welcome. Join us.

Click here to join the Zoom

Photo: BSLA Inside/Out tour of The Embrace + Boston Common, summer 2023

Online. All welcome.

Zoom link here

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Welcome to the Plant Sourcing Task Force. This group focuses on anti-neonicotinoids as well as other issues such as seed grown plants, local ecotypes, etc.

All are welcome.

In person. Free.

Join us for a hike, a beer, or both!

Landscape architects + designers, students + coworkers, family + friends:

Join us for a light-hearted fall hike, followed by food and drink. A Western Mass BSLA Social!

The "agenda" is to enjoy this special landscape and have fun together. We'll meet at Mass Audobon's Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton at 10:30am and hike some of their 4 miles of trails.

Afterwards, we'll head over to Abandoned Building Brewery -- around noon.

The Arcadia entrance fee + the first round of drinks will be covered by BSLA.

RSVP here

All are welcome. Say hi to an old friend and meet someone new. Bring a partner, or kids, or a classmate... you get the idea. Five College students, this includes you! The vibe is informal and fun.

PLEASE NOTE: Tickets are FREE. RSVP requested to make communication easier in case of bad weather. We aim to go in most conditions, but if anything changes due to weather, we'll email all ticket holders + will announce here and via Instagram (@BSLAoffice).

At Arcadia or at the Brewery, it is OK to just show up, too.

Please come dressed for the weather, with shoes good for walking, water bottle and sun protection.

Directions: click here.

Join us outside! We look forward to seeing you

In Person. Free.

Boston Dance Theater (BDT) is thrilled to invite you to two upcoming environmental performances this September. Join us for Unfurling at the Art Complex on September 17 at 6:00 PM, free and open to all, and Solos for Native Species at Native Plant Trust on September 26, free with Garden admission.

• September 17 at 6:00 PM

• Art Complex, 189 Alden Street, Duxbury, MA

• Free and open to all

• RSVP TODAY

Unfurling is a site-responsive performance conceptualized by BDT Founder & Director Jessie Jeanne Stinnett and created in collaboration with the artists of Boston Dance Theater and visual artist Kim Radochia. Inspired by the quiet resilience of plant life, the work invites audiences into a sensory experience of movement, sound, and sculptural installation. Dancers move through the space like tendrils of growth, attuning to one another, the land, and the unseen networks that connect us.

Online.

This is the monthly meeting of BSLA’s elected Executive Committee (“ExComm”), Section chairs, Student chapter leaders, and Committee leaders. All members from Maine and Massachuetts are welcome to attend.

This typically takes place on the third Thursday of the month.

The regular agenda includes brief updates, questions, and calls-to-action from each of the leaders and the work that they represent, along with longer discussions on special topics. If you have a topic to bring to an ExComm meeting, please email BSLA President, Michelle Crowley.

It’s our regular, essential moment to connect and coordinate our activities across Mass & Maine, AND our means to collaboratively discuss questions, issues, and other important things.

The 2026 Zoom link is here. Email Gretchen to be added to the calendar invite. Join us!

From our friends at UltiPlay:

Are you headed to ASLA in Los Angeles or NRPA in Philadelphia this year? If so, we'd love to invite you to our All-States Socials!

UltiPlay Parks & Playgrounds is teaming up with several of our national playground partners to host an evening of networking and fun at both conferences. It's a great chance to meet landscape architects and parks and recreation professionals from across the country. All are welcome, but RSVP is required!

All-States Social @ ASLA — Los Angeles

 September 15, 6 to 8 p.m.

 Tom's Watch Bar, 1011 S Figueroa St B101, Los Angeles, CA 90015

 RSVP at bit.ly/asla-allstatessocial

All-States Social @ NRPA — Philadelphia

 September 29, 4 to 6 p.m.

 F1 Arcade, 1330 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19107

 RSVP at bit.ly/nrpa-allstatessocial

Virtual.

Join the EBC Climate Change Committee for a webinar discussion focused on building climate resiliency in the business sector. The webinar will feature perspectives from the private sector, highlighting how businesses are advancing physical climate resilience across their operations, from site-specific design strategies to portfolio-wide standards and capital planning approaches. Speakers will share what is driving action within their organizations, along with key challenges, successes, and lessons learned. This program aims to showcase practical insights into how private sector resilience looks different than the public sector via real-world business contexts.

Anticipating & Overcoming Barriers – Lessons Learned from Building Climate Resiliency in the Business Sector

September 15, 2026 from 9:30 am - 12:00 pm EST

Virtual – Zoom Webinar | Registration

Online.

This is an informal, monthly drop-in Zoom meeting of landscape architecture firm owners and leaders. 

Our goal is to create a space where New England landscape architecture firm owners and leaders can connect, commiserate, compare notes, and hopefully laugh a little with your peers in this community.

There is no fixed agenda, but we will start with a few discussion prompts and then you can take the conversation wherever you want to go. 

Questions or topics to discuss? contact BSLA President & Crowley Cottrell firm owner, Michelle Crowley.

Do you want to receive the monthly calendar invite? email Gretchen.

Here’s the Zoom link for 2026.