Speaker Series

The Our Parks Speaker Series features prominent landscape architects as part of the Elkhart Parks master plan process, aimed at inspiring the public by showcasing the profound impact of well-designed public spaces. Each expert will share their vision and insights on the role of parks in fostering community well-being, environmental sustainability, and cultural identity. The talks will highlight innovative park designs from around the world, emphasizing how these green spaces enhance quality of life, promote health, and address urban challenges. Engaging and accessible, the series is designed to deepen appreciation for the value of public parks for the Elkhart community.

“Inclusiveness: Political, Economic, and Socially Resilient Landscapes”

October 22, 2024 at 6:00pm at the Lerner Theater’s Crystal Ballroom

David Rubin – Founding Principal
Land Collective | land-collective.com

David A. Rubin, PLA, FASLA, FAAR is the founding principal of DAVID RUBIN Land Collective, a landscape architecture, urban design, and planning studio committed to practicing with an emphasis on socially purposeful design strategies. David’s visionary contribution to the field in “empathy-driven design” is a hallmark of the studio, earning increasing renown for fusing issues of social justice in cities with excellence in the design of public spaces. Educated at Connecticut College and Harvard University, he has taught and lectured at a number of institutions, including Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and the University of Pennsylvania School of Design. David is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and recipient of the 2024 Elvira Broome Doolan medal which recognizes innovative work in landscape architecture with emphasis on city planning and civic improvement in urban areas. He was appointed by the U.S. State Department to serve on their Industry Advisory Group (IAG) to promote best practices in landscape architecture in Overseas Building Operations (OBO). His projects have received awards and honors from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Society of College and University Planners, and the American Institute of Architects, among others.
David’s current work includes Grand Junction Park in Westfield, IN, a socially-purposeful, environmentally-resilient, and inclusive park focused on human engagement; the National World War I Memorial, new comfort stations throughout the National Mall and the Tidal Basin Master Plan; Franklin Park, and an expanse of riverfront along the Anacostia in Washington, D.C.; and multiple projects for the Fort Wayne Riverfront in Indiana.

“Spatializing Stories: Translating Experiences into Landscapes”

Tuesday, November 12th at 6:00pm at the Beacon Health + Fitness Center

Maura Rockcastle – Founding Principal
TENXTEN | www.tenxtenstudio.com

Maura Rockcastle, PLA, ASLA loves leading large scale projects and navigating complex and culturally sensitive processes. Her design and leadership approach are grounded in listening, experimentation, and empathy, allowing her work to translate experiences into landscapes through spatializing stories and activating the senses. With a background in fine arts, she balances a rigorous approach to leadership, project implementation, and design excellence with a conceptual sensibility rooted in process. She holds a BFA in sculpture and printmaking from Cornell University and an MLA from the University of Pennsylvania, where she won the Ian L. McHarg Prize and an ASLA Certificate of Honor.
Maura’s professional experience is focused on cultural, institutional, and public realm projects. Her work spans many scales – from 4,500-acre parks to 5-acre urban plazas, to small collaborative art installations and interactive interpretive features. Recognized as a national leader of design process innovation, adaptive reuse, and culturally significant landscapes, her projects have received national awards for design excellence, sustainability, and preservation from AIA, ASLA, the Architectural League, and ULI. She believes in being hands-on, both as an approach to design as well as to practice inclusive, open, and successful collaborations with clients and teams. She’s deeply passionate about engaging curiosity to explore new methods of seeing and understanding landscapes and people.

“Parkonomics: Exploring the Economics of Our Shared Public Open Spaces”

Thursday, October 10th at 6:00pm at the Beacon Health + Fitness Center || An Informational Public Open House will start at 4:00pm

Jonathon Geels – Principal
Troyer Group| troyergroup.com

As a Principal at Troyer Group, Jonathon Geels, PLA, FASLA has established a purpose-driven approach to every project with a distinctive commitment to people and experiences. As an award-winning landscape architect, he focuses on public sites with an emphasis on park and open space design. His design ethic and process seek to solve emergent problems by connecting people to new ideas through research, advocacy, and activism.
Over the last twenty years, Jonathon’s project management experience has encompassed large park systems planning, individual park master plans, and a variety of both large and small scale constructed parks. He has also been deeply involved in both park facility analysis through his work in the City of South Bend Energy Office. He brings a big picture understanding to every project and works to exceed expectations, no matter the project scale. He is passionate about urban sociology applications in public landscapes, seeing it as integral to environmental and infrastructure management as well as economic development.
Jonathon is a frequent public speaker, dovetailing his design approach by placing a priority on research, mentorship, and teaching. He has spoken nationally at the Conference on Landscape Architecture and the Sociology of Development Conference, as well as many special lectures, including recently at the Indiana Parks and Recreation Association Leadership Summit on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on long-term park operations, maintenance, and planning.

“Crafting Belonging: Building Trust and Effective Communication in Community Engagement”

Wednesday, October 16 starting at 6:00pm at the Tolson Center for Community Excellence

Magdalena Aravena – Landscape Architect
Troyer Group| troyergroup.com

Magdalena is a Landscape Architect with nine years of experience in
practice, and as many years as an engaged volunteer and leader with
the American Society of Landscape Architects. Driven by her experiences,
she is passionate about exploring the role of designers in improving
disadvantaged communities through education, advocacy, and
collaborative design. In August 2021 she launched her own design
firm, Studio Siembra, in pursuit of realizing this vision of a more just
and inclusive practice of Landscape Architecture. Magdalena also
served as Adjunct Faculty for the Environmental Design Program at
the University of Colorado Boulder from Summer 2021 until Spring 2023.

Maggie specializes in public engagement strategies for park systems, currently serving the City of Denver Parks in an On-Call capacity for their project outreach. She bolster’s the team’s award winning approach, particularly with underserved communities. She is the recipient of the 2021 National ASLA Emerging Professional Honor and has been recognized widely for her outstanding service to the profession of landscape architecture.