ASLA Honors Chuck Smith, PLA and Barrett Kays, PhD, PLA, FASLA
by Brian Starkey, PLA, ASLA
NCASLA is proud to announce and celebrate the accomplishments of two North Carolina Landscape Architects, who through their volunteer efforts and work have demonstrated a genuine commitment to the promotion and protection of the profession and advanced the profession nationally and here at home. Chuck Smith and Dr. Barrett Kays will be honored at the National Conference on Landscape Architecture in Nashville this fall. Chuck will be inducted into the ASLA Council of Fellows for service to the profession and Barrett will receive the LaGasse Medal for his work in natural resource conservancy and public spaces.
Read on for more about Chuck’s and Barrett’s contributions and accomplishments.
Charles R. Smith, Jr., FASLA
Preston Development Company, Cary, NC
Charles “Chuck” Smith is a creative, thoughtful, and principled leader who has dedicated his career to supporting and promoting the profession at the national, state, and local levels. With more than a decade of senior leadership at the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB), where he is currently President-Elect, he and other leaders worked to change the public’s perception of the profession as well as advancing its standing nationally among the other licensed professions. His four decades of service and leadership in the state ASLA chapter have helped make it an example for other chapters nationwide. Chuck’s strategic efforts were instrumental in the state upgrading the licensing law from a title act to a practice act. He continues to represent the profession since 2008 on the North Carolina Board of Landscape Architects as an appointee by three different governors, where he has held multiple offices and co-authored the Bylaws, the Code of Professional Conduct for landscape architects licensed in the state, and Board rule revisions. Chuck’s work designing greenways, parks, and other public spaces as well as his exemplary stewardship overseeing the development of more than 15,000 acres of large master-planned communities reflect his value-driven leadership, all while devoting time and energy to local issues and projects in his community.
Charles R. Smith, Jr., FASLA
Dr. Barrett Kays, PhD, FASLA
Landis PLLC, Raleigh, NC
Dr. Barrett Kays is considered one of the field's top specialists in environmental sciences, groundwater, and soil design. Through the years, working through his own firm, Barrett Kays and Associates and later, Landis Inc., he has developed a unique expertise in soil design. This specialty was first put to use to bring back to life the Great Lawn of NYC's Central Park in NYC; Kays' soil and stormwater expertise turned the dry and decaying acreage of the 1990s to the lush and thriving recreational areas it is today. A similar project has been the restoration of the fountain of the famous Longwood Gardens in Philadelphia, where overflow of stormwater had for years been flooding the adjacent concert grounds. Dr. Kays' multi-disciplinary approach to landscape architecture is drawn from his three degrees: a bachelor’s in horticulture from Oklahoma State University, his NC State master’s in landscape architecture, and doctorate in soil science from NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Dr. Barrett Kays, PhD, FASLA