Recorded on December 5, 2025, this conference featured recent Oberlander Prize winner Mario Schjetnan, as well as leading landscape architects from Los Angeles and around the world, including China, Mexico, and the Netherlands. In these videos, speakers explore why landscape architects should be at the forefront of designing for urban flooding—rethinking risk and transforming constraints into opportunities through innovative and entrepreneurial water management strategies.
Inspired by the late Oberlander Prize winner Kongjian Yu, global champion of the “sponge cities” concept for addressing urban flooding, the Soak It Up conference demonstrates how landscape architects address the herculean task of managing the 51-mile long Los Angeles River, which flows through the nation’s second-largest metropolitan region, past the world’s two busiest ports, and into the Pacific Ocean.
Keynote Remarks
Opening Remarks
Honoring the late Kongjian Yu
Southern California Palimpses
Learning from Los Angeles
- Gerdo Aquino, FASLA, PLA, Co-CEO, SWA
- Jessica M. Henson, RLA, ASLA, AICP, Partner, OLIN
- Julia Prince, RLA, ASLA, AIA, Associate, Design Workshop
- Kush Parekh, PLA, ASLA, Principal, Studio-MLA & Matt Romero, ASLA, Associate Principal, Studio-MLA
Respondents
Plenary Provocation
Global Strategies and Perspectives
- John Beardsley, founding Oberlander Prize Curator
- Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, Managing Director, Grupo de Diseño Urbano
- Adriaan Geuze, FASLA, IR, RLA, OALA, Founding Partner, Principal, West 8
- Maura Rockcastle, ASLA, PLA, Co-Founder and Principal, Ten x Ten
Respondents
