Author: LABash Conference

1. Welcome to Cowtown!

Charming and quiet, Davis offers much more than meets the eye. Our vibrant city is full of quirky local shops and restaurants such as Sudwerk, offering a wide variety of California craft beers. On Saturdays, stop by our weekly farmers market from 8am-1pm for a taste of some of the finest produce around Northern California. Next, take a stroll through UC Davis’ 5300-acre arboretum with over twenty gardens for every landscape architect to sketch and enjoy! Referred to lovingly as “Cowtown,” visit our very own Dairy Cattle Facility to see every Aggie’s favorite animal. Once you’re north of campus, bike on over to see Village Homes, a world-renowned sustainable-living community built in 1975, the first of its kind. We hope you enjoy Davis and go Ags!

Photography by Gregory Urquiaga

2. Our Events

Less than 60 days remain until LABash at UC Davis and we hope you’re getting excited! We have an amazing lineup planned surrounding our theme, “Sunny Side Up”, including:

• Over twenty educational sessions
• Four art workshops including a special session from Chip Sullivan and our very own Elizabeth Boults!
• Eight walking and bus tours exploring UC Davis and the surrounding area
• Two incredible keynote speakers – Kimberly Garza and Gena Wirth
• And one Sheepmowers exhibit with sketching, needle felting, and watercolor!

“Sunny Side Up” aims to present an optimistic and positive view of the future focusing on solution-based ideas within the field of landscape architecture. Through our many events and sessions, take the opportunity to break out of your shell and experience UC Davis’ warm and welcoming community.

3. Keynote Speakers

Gena Wirth – SCAPE

Kimberly Garza – Atlas Labs

Be sure to save yourself a seat at our two keynotes and learn how Gena Wirth of SCAPE and Kimberly Garza of Atlas Labs are hatching a brighter future through landscape architecture. Whether it’s advocating for ecological systems or place making in communities, our keynotes inspire a call to conscious change in the built environment. Join us as we listen to our two solution-driven keynote speakers and how their role as landscape architects is used as catalysts to address today’s challenges.

4. Jepson Prairie

Only twenty-five minutes away from campus, visit Jepson Prairie, a preserved natural prairie among the agricultural land throughout the Central Valley of California. Vernal pools and playa lakes can be viewed and studied here along with over 400 species and 64 families of native plants that call Jepson Prairie their home. Docents offer tours from mid-March to mid-May and provide expertise on the variety of animals and beautiful springtime blooms.

5. The “Bash”

End your nights with a drink in hand at Sudwerk Brewery at a Land8 Happy Hour sponsored by Anova and our Closing Ceremony at Ruhstaller Farms sponsored by Permaloc! These are two local favorites that take their beer quality and community interests to heart. With day schedules packed with education sessions, expo, and workshops, you’ll crack a smile enjoying award-winning beer and live music surrounded by aspiring and expert landscape architects.

6. Landscape Architecture Core

Share the excitement of collecting free merch, meeting your professional heroes, making new friends, and more at the LABash Conference!

No one understands the experience of all nighters in the studio, the accomplishment of a finished project, or the ambition to design with the intention of growth than landscape architects. Join us in breaking out of our shells and cracking open the limitless possibilities our profession has to offer. Meet unforgettable people and make unforgettable memories that you won’t find anywhere else at this year’s LABash!

Check out what else is happening during this year’s conference at www.labash.org! Early Bird registration is open through February 16.

01. The Lineup of Events

24 education sessions
6 spark talks
4 keynotes
+ a watercolor workshop
   a sketch crawl
   a field visit to the Konza Prairie 

With a focus on trailblazing topics, this year’s LABash Conference has an impressive lineup of speakers with several special events that you won’t want to miss. A guided tour of the Konza Prairie Biological Station will give a behind the scenes look at prairie conservation and management within the Flint Hills tallgrass preserve. A watercolor workshop led by K-State Assistant Professor Otto Chankyakorn will inspire attendees to apply themselves in new ways and learn techniques for watercolor painting. Featuring topics in public engagement, digital tools, landscape performance, climate action, and many others, the LABash 2023 schedule provides something for everyone!

02. Four Trailblazing Keynotes

We’ve invited four keynotes to speak at this year’s LABash Conference: Kene Okigbo of RDG Planning & Design, Nina Chase of Merritt Chase, Matt Williams of the City of Detroit, and Michael Grove of Sasaki. From advocacy and outreach to making an impact as a young professional, these trailblazers demonstrate the power of landscape architecture to influence change on a variety of scales. Listening to these trailblazers who have inspired new directions in the field of landscape architecture will leave conference attendees inspired to expand their impact and the impact of landscape architecture on the world around us. 

Photography by: Tim Hursley

03. Manhappiness 

Oh Manhattan! We’re excited to welcome you to our little piece of Manhappiness. We may be in the middle of nowhere Kansas, but our small-town charm will have you feeling right at home. Explore shops and local boutiques downtown or hit the bars and restaurants in Aggieville. Take a walk around the Kansas State campus to see campus gems like the K-State Meadow, a learning landscape and living laboratory of native plants to the Kansas region or the historic Great Room in Hale Library also widely known as the Harry Potter Room. Have a sweet tooth? Make sure to visit Manhattan top picks: Call Hall for “farm to spoon” ice cream or the Varsity Truck for a late night fix. 

You’re sure to enjoy your time in the Little Apple!

A note:
Though the Manhattan Airport will be closed March 29th and 30th, LABash is offering a charter bus for conference attendees flying into the Kansas City Airport (MCI). The shuttle will depart MCI at 2:00 pm CST on Wednesday, March 29th, arriving in Manhattan just in time for our opening ceremony. The shuttle will depart Manhattan at 8:00 am on Saturday, April 1. This is a great opportunity to meet and interact with fellow conference attendees. Also, consider arriving a day earlier to avoid airport closures and enjoy Manhattan a little longer!

Purchase your tickets to reserve your spot on the shuttle while registering or add a shuttle ticket after registration through the links included on our page: www.labash.org/register. A pre-purchased ticket is required to ride on the LABash shuttle. 

For more information on getting to Manhattan, please visit https://www.labash.org/getting-here 

04. The Flint Hills–home to the largest expanse of tallgrass prairie

Sign up for a guided tour of the Konza Prairie, a native tallgrass preserve and living laboratory within the Flint Hills. The tour will take you through the Konza Biological Station, a private research area jointly owned by the Nature Conservancy and Kansas State University. This experience is an opportunity to learn about prairie management practices such as grazing and controlled burns. Get up close to over 500 plant species and a variety of animals that roam the Konza, including bison and the greater prairie-chicken.

Purchase your tickets while registering or add a ticket through the link on our page: www.labash.org/register. 

05. The BASH in LABash

You can’t host the LABash Conference without a BASH or two! Aggieville, Manhattan’s bar and entertainment district, is home to the local bars and eateries that K-State students know and love. Join us in the ‘Ville on the evenings of March 29th and 30th to experience Aggieville and have a drink on us!

New to LABash this year is… LABash Formal! Dress to the nines for the closing ceremony and last BASH of the 2023 conference. Get your picture snapped with the landscape architecture stars as you walk the Green Carpet – you’ll want to look sharp!

Semi-formal or cocktail attire is suggested. 

06. The Energy

Surround yourself with a community of like-minded people who relate to your obsession with plants, dedication to studio and desire to change the world for the better. LABash brings together hundreds of landscape architecture students from across the nation providing a unique opportunity to make new friends. We speak from experience when we say, you might just meet some of your closest friends!

It’s hard to explain the unique energy the LABash Conference emanates, but it is sure to fuel your passion for landscape architecture. Don’t believe us? Be in attendance at this year’s conference to feel the energy and excitement from the future landscape architects who are bound to blaze new trails in the profession.

Visit www.labash.org to learn more!

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Lead Image: Visit Manhattan