Boffa Miskell designers on the NZILA Executive Committee

2022 will be a milestone year for Boffa Miskell and for the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects - Tuia Pito Ora, as both organisations mark their 50-year Anniversary.

Three Boffa Miskell landscape architects are on the current NZILA Executive Committee, which manages the strategic direction of the Institute. We asked Rebecca Ryder, Megan Harsley and William Hatton to share their thoughts on their role within the NZILA, and the events of the year to come.

Q: What do you do in your role on the NZILA Executive Committee? What inspired you to ‘put your hand up’?  

Rebecca Ryder (RR): I’ve been volunteering on NZILA branch committees for most of my career and I have a real passion to support our profession. Supporting the Association into a governance model has been a driver for my involvement in the Executive committee. I’ve been the Treasurer for the past three terms and working alongside the NZILA team has been very rewarding. I’ve also taken on the Vice President role and in that capacity I’ve led the RMA reform portfolio and placing the submissions to the select committee.

Megan Harsley (MH): My role on the NZILA Executive Committee involves looking after the membership portfolio. This includes overseeing and promoting the relationship between the Institute and university students; raising the profile of the Landscape Architecture profession within high schools and bridging the gap between the local branches and the Executive committee. The majority of activities are run by people volunteering their time; and that’s why I wanted to join the Executive Committee — to do my part to give back to them. This year I’ve also stepped into the role of monitoring and reviewing CPD (Continuing Professional Development) for the institute.

William Hatton (WH): I am the representative of Te Tau-a-Nuku (Māori Landscape Architects Roopu), under the umbrella of Ngā Aho (Māori Designers Network), on the Executive Committee. The position was established in 2015 upon the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the two partners ensuring representation of tangata whenua values and aspirations within the Institute.

I am the second person to hold this position and I took on the challenge to maintain, grow and build this relationship between Tuia Pito Ora NZILA and Ngā Aho / Te Tau-a-Nuku; working to ensure that both tangata whenua and tangata tiriti aspirations are met.

Q: What do you see as the benefits, or support, that NZILA gives to individual landscape architects, and to the profession as a whole?

RR: Advocating for the profession and our role in shaping Aotearoa through the many avenues of landscape planning, design and landscape management provides a broader role, and greater awareness, of what we do. Advocacy in the recent RMA reform, and promotion of the work we do through the media, are important to maintaining an influential role in shaping Aotearoa.

For individual landscape architects, the Institute provides training and development through CPD events, conferences, webinars, networking and registration of its members.

MH: The Institute provides a platform, and the opportunity to be part of an organisation of likeminded people. It provides support through professional development: providing opportunities to upskill and exposure to some really interesting talks and seminars from national and international landscape architects.

WH: The partnership between Tuia Pito Ora NZILA and Te Tau-a-Nuku/Ngā Aho is an important component within the institute ensuring that landscape architects understand perspectives of Te Ao Māori within the design environment. Personally, I see this is key for all professionals working in our spaces providing appropriate processes to ensure successful and meaningful design environments here in Aotearoa.

Q: Boffa Miskell will also celebrate 50 years in 2022. Our company founder, Frank Boffa, was instrumental in the creation and growth of the NZILA; along with other key figures, some of whom have worked for, or are still working for, Boffa Miskell.

What are your reflections about the knowledge and history that these founders have shared? How does it continue to influence the Institute, our company, and perhaps you as an individual ?

RR: The leadership provided by the founding members is a constant reminder of the need to be involved in driving our profession forward. From the beginning, NZILA has been focused on lifting the profession and supporting members. Keeping people at the heart of the Institute remains important as we grow. This is evident in the passion that Frank and other founding members continue to have – both for the Institute and the companies they founded, like Boffa Miskell.

MH: Landscape Architecture and Landscape Planning are still relativity new professions here in Aotearoa New Zealand; and I think that’s why values from the key founders remain very relevant and visible today. Ultimately Landscape Architects are advocates and a voice for the landscape; and that’s something particularly important right now.

WH: Over the past fifty years landscape architects have become primary innovators and makers of change within the environments we live. Influential people like Frank Boffa, and others, have given us a platform to help us do that.