Neil Dawe, NLALA, BD Ep, MLA

When I was first asked run for the position as President of the CLSA,  my first response was to suggest to Myke Hodgins that surely he had the wrong number. After all, I am out here on "the Rock" and no Newfoundlander had ever before been considered for this tremendous honour! But before I could accept, I had to check in with my wife Corrina, who (who is kidding whom) in addition to her work as a resource planner would now shoulder even more of our more domestic obligations - never mind getting our children to soccer games and rock climbing walls…  

My first vocation was not landscape architecture - in fact I knew very little about it. I started off in forestry and resource conservation, working in National and Provincial Parks. As a National Park Warden in Gros Morne National Park (where the locals affectionately called me a "moose narc"),  I was introduced to landscape architecture by Sara Greutzner, Arthur Boutlier  and Fred Hann.  Soon I was studying Environmental Planning and Design at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design .  There I was struck by the number of landscape architects - John Zuck, Peter Klynstra, Robert Parker,  Gordon Ratcliff - teaching planning. What also struck me was the latitude they had in making decisions and solving problems. If no set solution existed, we were encouraged to find one - that  was what really drew me to the profession. 

After working with the City of St. John's for five years as Assistant Superintendent  of Parks and Recreation, Corrina and I swapped our Volkswagon for my buddy's  truck, sold what we had and made the leap to Guelph, Ontario. There I completed the Master in Landscape Architecture program.  I landed a job with one of Newfoundland's great philanthropists: businessman Paul J. Johnson.  Here was a man who truly embraces Burnam's adage: " make no small plans" . He lived and worked by the maxim "do it right the first time". Together, we built what I think is a truly great walking trail system, The Grand Concourse, or in more evocative terms:  "Walkers Paradise." It was during this time that I helped found the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Landscape Architects and served as both President and sat on the then Board of Governors for the CSLA.  

Finally, in 1998,  my colleague Gerhard Weiland and I founded Tract Consulting Incorporated.  Tract has seen steady growth and focuses on four key customer service areas: landscape architecture, professional planning, graphic design, and interpretation and exhibit design.  The talented Mr. Weiland is now our senior landscape architect. I would enjoy speaking at length about our staff and what we do at TRACT but safe to say: Newfoundland might be short on fish but was never short on talent. Newfoundlanders, like myself, have developed a deeply loyal connection to the land, and even more usefully, a uniquely political understanding of what it means to respect a region’s natural beauty. 

To conclude, I would like to make two points about where I would like the CLSA to go during my tenure of this important post: 

1. We need to define, promote and encourage the body of knowledge that is landscape architecture. I support standing tall and accepting a national standard for the profession. Indeed, I support licensure. 

2. This really is OUR time. I remind you that the founding father of our profession, the good Mr. Olsmsted, was both a social planner AND a designer. Importantly, folks today are just as interested in quality of life as they are in the size of their paycheque. As landscape architects I strongly believe that we are “the quality of life” profession. Let’s promote plans and celebrate practices and designs that enable a healthy family life.  

Thank-you for this opportunity.