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Lake Douglas Speaks at International Conference at Versailles

Douglas LakeLake Douglas, PhD, FASLA, the College of Art & Design associate dean for research and development and landscape architecture professor, presented a paper at an international colloquium of landscape architect educators held June 16-17, 2022 at the École nationale supérieure de paysage, France’s National School of Landscape Architecture located at the Potager du Roi in Versailles. The colloquium discussed the history and evolution of landscape training and landscape pedagogy to “improve and enhance knowledge on landscape and landscape project training in France, Europe and around the world.” The conference was organized around three main subjects: the history of training in the field before the end of WW II; the evolution of pedagogy from 1947 (the creation of IFLA, the International Federation of Landscape Architects) to today; and the contribution of disciplines and interdisciplinarity among landscape architects and other professionals. 

The conference was originally scheduled for 2020 but postponed for two years due to Covid-19 travel restrictions. Papers were solicited internationally, and Douglas was the only speaker invited from America; other speakers were from France, Holland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Morocco, Canada, Lithuania, Norway. His paper, “Rooted in Modernism: Dr. Robert S. Reich and LSU’s School of Landscape Architecture” discussed the evolution of the program and how its origins and development – as well as the development of the profession in Louisiana – reflected Reich’s personal vision for professional education as well as his relationships with Modernist landscape architects Garrett Eckbo, Dan Kiley, James Rose, and their contemporaries.