“Performance Based Practice”
Prince’s presentation highlights Los Angeles as a global biodiversity hotspot within the California Floristic Province, home to many species increasingly threatened by climate change and urbanization. She argues that protecting biodiversity begins with responsible water stewardship, as ecological health depends on limited water resources and historic hydrology. Drawing on Design Workshop’s place-based approach, she also explores how landscape architecture can align design with local environmental conditions rather than imposed ideals. In a highly urbanized and altered region like Los Angeles, Prince questions traditional notions of restoration, proposing adaptive strategies that respect historic ecology while accommodating contemporary human and ecological needs.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF) three-day Oberlander Prize Forum Soak it Up: Los Angeles, CA in December 2025 was inspired by the global champion of the “sponge cities” concept for addressing urban flooding, Chinese landscape architect Kongjian Yu, winner of the 2023 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize. The conference featured twenty leading landscape architects, including 2025 Oberlander Prize winner, Mexico City-based Mario Schjetnan, academics, and critics from Los Angeles and beyond, addressing landscape architecture’s leadership in managing the Los Angeles River, urban flooding, and drought in Southern California. The event, held at the Bovard Auditorium at the University of Southern California (USC), was curated by Professor Alison Hirsch, PhD, of the USC School of Architecture, and Charles A. Birnbaum, TCLF’s Founding President and CEO. Kongjian Yu was to have been a featured speaker, but following his tragic death on September 23, 2025, Soak it Up became a memorial to him and his revolutionary work.
To learn more, please visit: https://www.tclf.org/inspiring-soak-it-los-angeles-ca-conference-events-honor-late-oberlander-prize-winner-kongjian-yu.
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