In person. At Bayside Bowl, Portland. ALL WELCOME.

Happy New Year!

The Maine section of BSLA invites all in our landscape architecture and design community to join us for a fun evening to kick off 2025.

Join us for a fun evening to kick off 2025.

Bring a coworker, family, friends -- and let's bowl! Or just come to hang out.

This is a festive social gathering to celebrate the season, and we will raise a glass together to toast Lisa Cowan, FASLA -- the first female landscape architect to be elevated to Fellow from Maine!

Get your ticket here.

Tickets are free for members, $10 non-members, and include lots of hot appetizers, 1 drink ticket (21+), and bowling! Bowling shoe rental is included too. Additional drinks are on you. Non-members, partners, family and friends are welcome.

Space is limited -- sign up today!

The Winter Social is generously sponsored by Maglin Site Furniture.

We look forward to seeing you there —

Photos below from past winter socials, also at Bayside Bowl…………..

In person at Apres, 148 Anderson Street, Portland, Maine

This casual meetup is open to all landscape designers, architects and friends. Come hang out with us while we chat, sip and sketch.  We may even play our own version of exquisite corpse (a drawing game.) Feel free to bring you favorite drawing media and paper, or use ours.

We’ll cover the first round of drinks. See you there —

In person. At the offices & roof deck of Thorton Tomasetti, 14 York Street, Portland, Maine.

Maine landscape architects, architects, and friends: join us for a social evening to celebrate this extra special summer season:

The Portland Society for Architecture and the BSLA Maine Section invite you to join faculty, students and the Portland area design community to celebrate the second year of our introductory summer program. “The Complete City: Spatial Design.” Hosted in the beautiful Portland offices of Thorton Tomasetti.

You don't want to miss this! Space is LIMITED!

Get your ticket here

Food & drink will be served.

Photos from the inaugural summer program + party, July 2023.

Thank you to these sponsors…. and you?

Sponsorship keeps ticket prices low for this event and support the direct costs of the summer introduction to design program. Maine high school students attend for free! This is the first introduction to architecture & landscape architecture program in northern New England, and it’s unique nationally in the way that it celebrates and connects with the larger design community. It’s a collaborative project in every way, and relies on the support of many.

To sponsor at $250, $500, or more, you can either choose that option as your eventbrite ticket OR — to skip the fees — email gretchen@bslanow.org and we’ll invoice you directly.

THANK YOU!

In person at Oxbow Brewing, Portland, Maine

Now happening monthly!

This casual meetup is open to all landscape designers and friends. Come hang out with us while we chat, sip and sketch.  We may even play our own version of exquisite corpse (a drawing game.) Feel free to bring your favorite drawing media and paper, or use ours.

We’ll cover the first round of drinks. See you there —

In person at Bunker Brewing Co, 17 Westfield Street D, Portland, Maine

Now happening monthly!

This casual meetup is open to all landscape designers and friends. Come hang out with us while we chat, sip and sketch.  We may even play our own version of exquisite corpse (a drawing game.) Feel free to bring you favorite drawing media and paper, or use ours.

We’ll cover the first round of drinks. See you there —

In Person at Aura, 121 Center Street, Portland

BSLA is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Architalx. This annual Portland, Maine-based April speaker series is dedicated to broadening the awareness and understanding of architecture, landscape architecture, and design.

Info + tickets here.

Today’s speaker:

Barbara Bestor, FAIA is founding principal of Bestor Architecture. Since 1995, Bestor Architecture has actively redefined Los Angeles architecture with a practice that rigorously engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. Increasingly, the firm applies L.A.’s lessons to national undertakings. She explores the architectural form through experiments in spatial arrangements, graphics, and color, which is evident in her projects from custom residences to headquarters for international companies. Her varied and progressive body of work connects with people on many levels, often outside the boundaries traditionally delineated for architecture. She believes that good design creates an engaged urban life and embraces the ‘strange beauty’ that enhances everyday life experience.

Beats By Dre HQ

Barbara’s career is punctuated with inventive projects in a wide breadth of typologies. She has designed new ways of creating accessible urbanism in her “stealth density” Blackbirds housing, retail and restaurant flagships, dynamic workspaces for Beats By Dre and Snap, award-winning residences and pioneering arts projects that are deeply rooted in their communities and cultural context.

Blackbirds

She received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied at the Architecture Association in London and received a MARCH at SCI-Arc. She is the author of Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake.

Click here for more info & tickets for Architalx 2023!

In Person at Aura, 121 Center Street, Portland

BSLA is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Architalx. This annual Portland, Maine-based April speaker series is dedicated to broadening the awareness and understanding of architecture, landscape architecture, and design.

Info + tickets here.

Today’s speaker:

Barbara Bestor, FAIA is founding principal of Bestor Architecture. Since 1995, Bestor Architecture has actively redefined Los Angeles architecture with a practice that rigorously engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. Increasingly, the firm applies L.A.’s lessons to national undertakings. She explores the architectural form through experiments in spatial arrangements, graphics, and color, which is evident in her projects from custom residences to headquarters for international companies. Her varied and progressive body of work connects with people on many levels, often outside the boundaries traditionally delineated for architecture. She believes that good design creates an engaged urban life and embraces the ‘strange beauty’ that enhances everyday life experience.

Beats By Dre HQ

Barbara’s career is punctuated with inventive projects in a wide breadth of typologies. She has designed new ways of creating accessible urbanism in her “stealth density” Blackbirds housing, retail and restaurant flagships, dynamic workspaces for Beats By Dre and Snap, award-winning residences and pioneering arts projects that are deeply rooted in their communities and cultural context.

Blackbirds

She received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied at the Architecture Association in London and received a MARCH at SCI-Arc. She is the author of Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake.

Click here for more info & tickets for Architalx 2023!

In Person at Aura, 121 Center Street, Portland

BSLA is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Architalx. This annual Portland, Maine-based April speaker series is dedicated to broadening the awareness and understanding of architecture, landscape architecture, and design.

Info + tickets here.

Today’s speaker:

Barbara Bestor, FAIA is founding principal of Bestor Architecture. Since 1995, Bestor Architecture has actively redefined Los Angeles architecture with a practice that rigorously engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. Increasingly, the firm applies L.A.’s lessons to national undertakings. She explores the architectural form through experiments in spatial arrangements, graphics, and color, which is evident in her projects from custom residences to headquarters for international companies. Her varied and progressive body of work connects with people on many levels, often outside the boundaries traditionally delineated for architecture. She believes that good design creates an engaged urban life and embraces the ‘strange beauty’ that enhances everyday life experience.

Beats By Dre HQ

Barbara’s career is punctuated with inventive projects in a wide breadth of typologies. She has designed new ways of creating accessible urbanism in her “stealth density” Blackbirds housing, retail and restaurant flagships, dynamic workspaces for Beats By Dre and Snap, award-winning residences and pioneering arts projects that are deeply rooted in their communities and cultural context.

Blackbirds

She received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied at the Architecture Association in London and received a MARCH at SCI-Arc. She is the author of Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake.

Click here for more info & tickets for Architalx 2023!

In Person at Aura, 121 Center Street, Portland

BSLA is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Architalx. This annual Portland, Maine-based April speaker series is dedicated to broadening the awareness and understanding of architecture, landscape architecture, and design.

Info + tickets here.

Today’s speaker:

Barbara Bestor, FAIA is founding principal of Bestor Architecture. Since 1995, Bestor Architecture has actively redefined Los Angeles architecture with a practice that rigorously engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. Increasingly, the firm applies L.A.’s lessons to national undertakings. She explores the architectural form through experiments in spatial arrangements, graphics, and color, which is evident in her projects from custom residences to headquarters for international companies. Her varied and progressive body of work connects with people on many levels, often outside the boundaries traditionally delineated for architecture. She believes that good design creates an engaged urban life and embraces the ‘strange beauty’ that enhances everyday life experience.

Beats By Dre HQ

Barbara’s career is punctuated with inventive projects in a wide breadth of typologies. She has designed new ways of creating accessible urbanism in her “stealth density” Blackbirds housing, retail and restaurant flagships, dynamic workspaces for Beats By Dre and Snap, award-winning residences and pioneering arts projects that are deeply rooted in their communities and cultural context.

Blackbirds

She received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied at the Architecture Association in London and received a MARCH at SCI-Arc. She is the author of Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake.

Click here for more info & tickets for Architalx 2023!

In person at Bissell Brothers, 38 Resurgam Pl, Portland

This casual meetup is open to all landscape designers and friends! Come hang out with us while we chat, sip and sketch.  We may even play our own version of exquisite corpse (a drawing game.) Feel free to bring you favorite drawing media and paper, or use ours.

We’ll cover the first round of drinks. See you there —

In person, in Augusta

(though remote volunteer help behind the scenes is welcome too)

The Maine section of BSLA is going to the Maine Hall of Flags at the Maine State Capitol. We will speak about landscape architecture and the work of landscape architects throughout the state, and we will display of work by all of you.

This event was initially planned for spring 2020, but then a global pandemic arrived. We have -- and will use -- the exhibit boards from 2020, and we know that a lot has happened since then.

We need your help.

Will you please share a few projects?

+/or

Will you please join us in person in Augusta that day?

• SCHEDULE

• Noon: setup

• 1-4pm: official display + conversations

• 4-5pm: cleanup

Submit work for the EXHIBIT: Click here to download templates (deadline: 2/16)

Click here to sign up to VOLUNTEER (in person or remotely)

THANK YOU for helping us raise the visibility of landscape architects and promote landscape architecture in Maine!

At top: the Maine State House in Augusta. Photographer: Alexius Horatius.

Below: Wetland Creation for the Maine Turnpike Authority, Westbrook, Maine. Landscape Architect: Studio Verde.

Today is the deadline to submit work for the exhibit in the Maine Hall of Flags.

The Maine section of BSLA is going to the Maine Hall of Flags at the Maine State Capitol on Monday, March 4. We will speak about landscape architecture and the work of landscape architects throughout the state, and we will display of work by all of you.

This event was initially planned for spring 2020, but then a global pandemic arrived. We have -- and will use -- the exhibit boards from 2020, and we know that a lot has happened since then.

We need your help.

Will you please share a few projects?

+/or

Will you please join us in person in Augusta that day?

• SCHEDULE

• Noon: setup

• 1-4pm: official display + conversations

• 4-5pm: cleanup

SUBMIT WORK for the EXHIBIT: Click here to download templates

Click here to sign up to VOLUNTEER (in person or remotely)

THANK YOU for helping us raise the visibility of landscape architects and promote landscape architecture in Maine!

At top: the Maine State House in Augusta. Photographer: Alexius Horatius.

Below: Wetland Creation for the Maine Turnpike Authority, Westbrook, Maine. Landscape Architect: Studio Verde.

In Person. Free.

Do you love to sketch?

Have you been wanting to try?

Join other Portland area folks for a new, drop-in, monthly urban sketching meet up.

This is friendly and low key; all welcome. Grab a coffee (or tea), bring whatever sketch materials you have and just show up.

This is being organized by our Maine BSLA section chairs Johanna and Steven. Email them with any questions and join us outside!

In Person. Free.

Do you love to sketch?

Have you been wanting to try?

Join other Portland area folks for a new, drop-in, monthly urban sketching meet up.

This is friendly and low key; all welcome. Grab a coffee (or tea), bring whatever sketch materials you have and just show up.

This is being organized by our Maine BSLA section chairs Johanna and Steven. Email them with any questions and join us outside!

In Person. Free.

Do you love to sketch?

Have you been wanting to try?

Join other Portland area folks for a new, drop-in, monthly urban sketching meet up.

This is friendly and low key; all welcome. Grab a coffee (or tea), bring whatever sketch materials you have and just show up.

This is being organized by our Maine BSLA section chairs Johanna and Steven. Email them with any questions and join us outside!

In person. At the studio of Knickerbocker Group, 82 Hanover Street, Portland, Maine.

Maine landscape architects, architects, and friends: join us for a social evening to celebrate this extra special summer season:

The Portland Society for Architecture and the BSLA Maine Section invite you to join faculty, students and the Portland area design community to celebrate the end of our inaugural summer program. “The Complete City: Spatial Design.” Hosted in the beautiful Portland Studio of Knickerbocker. Libations courtesy of Capozza Flooring, Bradfords Rug Gallery, Exterus, and Knickerbocker.

You don't want to miss this! Space is LIMITED!

Click here for tickets

PSA and BSLA Members: type MEMBER for no fee. Otherwise $25 fee applies. Food & drink will be served.

In Person at Aura, 121 Center Street, Portland

BSLA is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Architalx. This annual Portland, Maine-based April speaker series is dedicated to broadening the awareness and understanding of architecture, landscape architecture, and design.

Info + tickets here.

Today’s speakers:

Je Ahn – Founding Director, Studio Weave, London

Studio Weave were founded through designing public art installations. Over the last 15 years we have grown to take on larger projects with increasing scope and responsibility – we are currently working on housing and public buildings with a century-long lifespan.

Our early work was centered on co-design and engagement processes – we have had the pleasure of meeting, engaging and working closely with a wide range of different people. From residents’ associations to business owners and market traders, campaign groups, to client groups, from school children and patients to built-environment professionals and artists.

Today, Studio Weave is one of the leading practices contributing to the field of architecture and landscape design. Our background of working in the public sphere informs our values and design approach. Through a series of past projects, Je will discuss how both disciplines have evolved together; inform one another, in close collaboration with all users of our built environment.

Studio Weave is an award-winning RIBA Chartered Architecture Practice based in London. We balance a joyful, open-minded approach with technical precision, to create a diverse body of work across the world for public, private and commercial clients. We recognize that every project is a transformation and we enjoy working through this process with all involved; clients, users, funders, neighbours, contractors, consultants and collaborators. We aim to make a place the best version of itself, playing to its inherent strengths and not imposing preconceived ideals.

We value idiosyncrasies: From the characteristics that make somewhere unique, to the particular skills of a master craftsperson. We harness the strengths of a project to create something distinctive and of exceptional quality. 

We are also fascinated by the powerful role that stories can play in creating a sense of place, both as a design tool and a way to communicate. We are always on the lookout for alluring stories that grow from the inherent characteristics of a place and its people. 

We seek opportunities from what may seem mundane situations or elements, and find a way to bring them to the life. We find that negative perceptions or seemingly insurmountable logistical issues can be catalysts for something creative and characterful.

 .
Click here for more info & tickets for Architalx 2023!

In Person at Aura, 121 Center Street, Portland

BSLA is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Architalx. This annual Portland, Maine-based April speaker series is dedicated to broadening the awareness and understanding of architecture, landscape architecture, and design.

Info + tickets here.

In some sense, our practice is guided by a propensity to gently challenge dogma. Ways of seeing, drawing, building and maintaining landscapes are often entrenched. Making a habit of questioning received information, especially when that information creates negative externalities, has led us on a happily idiosyncratic design derive. Join us for a discussion of some of the ways we refine our sieve, and a collective dreaming session about where things might flow from here.

Today’s speakers:

Alain Peauroi – CO-Founder and Partner, TERREMOTO — San Francisco Office

Alain Peauroi has over 20 years of experience in the field of Landscape Architecture. Alain received a BA from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in Landscape Architecture and a master’s in Industrial Design from Design Academy Eindhoven. In the past 10 years, Alain has been responsible for the establishment and development of the firm Terremoto, heading the Construction Documentation and Construction Administration divisions and co-leading the SF office. He is responsible for the construction of a wide range of residential and public facing projects, including 17th Street Plaza, Forest Paths, Scribe Winery, Sea Ranch and Café Ohlone.

Story Wiggins – Partner, TERREMOTO – San Francisco Office

Story Wiggins is landscape architect with a background in historic preservation and land stewardship. Story received a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley and a BA in Historic Preservation and French from the College of Charleston. During her time at UC Berkeley, she worked for the National Park Service in their Cultural Landscape Program.

Story joined Terremoto’s San Francisco office in 2016, where she leads projects of various scales and types, including high-end residential, commercial, institutional and agricultural. Her work has been featured in LAM, House Beautiful, Gardenista and Architectural Digest. She has lectured at UC Berkeley, Auburn University, Harvard’s GSD and the Conway School.

 .
Click here for more info & tickets for Architalx 2023!

In Person at Aura, 121 Center Street, Portland

BSLA is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Architalx. This annual Portland, Maine-based April speaker series is dedicated to broadening the awareness and understanding of architecture, landscape architecture, and design.

Info + tickets here.

Through a series of projects of varied scales, located in diverse geographic and cultural locations, the architectural object gains currency when it enters the public domain. Working with, for, and around the public redefines the public realm.

Today’s speaker:

Nader Tehrani – founding director, NADAAA

For his contributions to architecture as an art, Nader Tehrani is the recipient of The American Academy of Arts and Letters’ 2020 Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize. Tehrani has also been named the 2022 National Design Awards Design Visionary by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; honored for his innovation and impact on the field of architecture.

Working on interdisciplinary platforms, Nader Tehrani’s research has been focused on the transformation of the building industry, innovative material applications, and the development of new means and methods of construction, as exemplified in his work with digital fabrication. Tehrani’s work has received many prestigious awards, among which are an unprecedented eighteen Progressive Architecture Awards. The works of Nader Tehrani have been widely exhibited at MOMA, LA MOCA and ICA Boston. His work is also part of the permanent collection of the Canadian Center for Architecture and the Nasher Sculpture Center. 

Tehrani is former Dean of The Cooper Union’s Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture where he served from 2015-2022 and former Head of the Department of Architecture at the MIT School of Architecture and Planning where he served from 2010-2014. Tehrani has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Rhode Island School of Design, the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he served as the Thomas W. Ventulett III Distinguished Chair in Architectural Design, and The University of Toronto where he served as the Frank O. Gehry International Visiting Chair in Architecture. He also served as the William A. Bernoudy Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. 

 .
Click here for more info & tickets for Architalx 2023!

In Person at Aura, 121 Center Street, Portland

BSLA is proud to be a longtime sponsor of Architalx. This annual Portland, Maine-based April speaker series is dedicated to broadening the awareness and understanding of architecture, landscape architecture, and design.

Info + tickets here.

Today’s speaker:

Barbara Bestor, FAIA is founding principal of Bestor Architecture. Since 1995, Bestor Architecture has actively redefined Los Angeles architecture with a practice that rigorously engages the city through design, art, and urbanism. Increasingly, the firm applies L.A.’s lessons to national undertakings. She explores the architectural form through experiments in spatial arrangements, graphics, and color, which is evident in her projects from custom residences to headquarters for international companies. Her varied and progressive body of work connects with people on many levels, often outside the boundaries traditionally delineated for architecture. She believes that good design creates an engaged urban life and embraces the ‘strange beauty’ that enhances everyday life experience.

Beats By Dre HQ

Barbara’s career is punctuated with inventive projects in a wide breadth of typologies. She has designed new ways of creating accessible urbanism in her “stealth density” Blackbirds housing, retail and restaurant flagships, dynamic workspaces for Beats By Dre and Snap, award-winning residences and pioneering arts projects that are deeply rooted in their communities and cultural context.

Blackbirds

She received her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studied at the Architecture Association in London and received a MARCH at SCI-Arc. She is the author of Bohemian Modern, Living in Silver Lake.

Click here for more info & tickets for Architalx 2023!

In person at Novare Res, 4 Canal Street, Portland, ME.

The Maine section of BLSA invites our landscape architecture community and friends to a reception in honor of Portland city arborist Jeff Tarling.

Through his 34 years of service as the arborist for the City of Portland, Tarling “has overseen the planting of thousands of thousands of trees, built nearly a dozen community gardens, visited schools across the city and led the cleanup after major storms.” He oversaw “management of city trees and horticulture at parks, playgrounds, schools and other public property. He manage[d] 27 employees and also review[ed] site plans from a landscape perspective.

Tarling retired at the end of January. Please join BSLA in recognizing this extraordinary career.

Members + non-members, colleagues and friends, all are welcome!

RSVP here.

Read more about Jeff Tarling’s career in the Portland Press Herald and the Portland Phoenix.

Thank you michael boucher landscape architecture for sponsoring this reception.

Image credits. At left: Jeff Tarling stands beside an oak tree in Kennedy Park in November, 2021. Tarling will retire at the end of January after 34 years as the city's arborist. (Portland Phoenix/Jim Neuger)

Above: Portland arborist Jeff Tarling looks over a Japanese White Pine in the conifer section of the Longfellow Arboretum at Payson Park in January. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald)

Online. Free.

Are you preparing an entry for the 2023 BSLA Design Awards — Or considering it? Curious about new changes this year?

Bring your questions to this interactive info session. Questions can be submitted in advance when you register, or ask them live during the Zoom. (OR —even if you can’t attend, email questions in advance to chapteroffice@bslanow.org and we’ll be sure to cover them during the session).

The session will be recorded and posted on the BSLA Design Awards Call for Entries web page.

REGISTER HERE for the Zoom.