Wednesday, October 6, 2021

The Visualizing Equity in Landscape Architecture (VELA) Project is a research initiative that reveals, spatializes, and acknowledges the status of gender equity throughout landscape architecture. Over twenty years have passed since the last report documenting women's careers in landscape architecture. The issues raised then are similar to many problems women face now. To understand why these disparities still exist and the gaps associated with them, the VELA project offers a current review of women's status in both academia and the profession. The research collected over 17,000 unique data points from multiple public sources. The analysis organizes the data into a series of robust visualizations that catalog current trends and highlight opportunities to improve gender equity in the profession. The purpose of this research is a question of value—to recognize where "we" as a profession fall short and where critical re-alignments must occur. The project is a provocative and timely exploration that serves to inform, instigate, and empower the landscape architecture community to rally together and transform the future of practice, now!