In Remembrance: Richard Weller

Richard Weller among the crowd leading a champagne toast — Richard Weller (center) leads the toast at the conclusion of LAF's 2016 The New Landscape Declaration: A Summit on Landscape Architecture and the Future.

May 19, 2025

With very heavy hearts, we share the sad news that former LAF Board member and Legacy Award winner Richard Weller passed away on May 15 after battling cancer.

Richard served on the on the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Board of Directors from 2014 to 2018 and as an active Board Emeritus thereafter. Richard's vision and leadership helped the organization turn ideas into action and bring to fruition two bold initiatives that were catalytic for LAF and the landscape architecture discipline:

LAF's 2016 Summit on Landscape Architecture and the Future and the resulting New Landscape Declaration, which he so poetically authored, is a call-to-action for the discipline that will continue to inspire and activate landscape architects for generations to come.
LAF's 2020-2021 Green New Deal Superstudio, which he conceptualized as a Board Emeritus, was an open call to translate the core goals of the Green New Deal—decarbonization, justice, and jobs—into design and planning projects. The Superstudio’s success and the ideas it inspired informed the most important conversations emerging in design at the time.

In recognition of these exceptional contributions and their long-term impact, LAF created its Legacy Award in 2023 and honored Richard Weller as the inaugural recipient. The award is given to past members of the LAF Board of Directors who provided extraordinary service and contributions to the organization and its legacy.

"I will miss him terribly," said LAF CEO Barbara Deutsch. "He was an incredible mind, advocate, and exceptionally accomplished leader in landscape architecture. Always upbeat, a visionary, passionate, and influential leader who knew when we needed an advocate and when we needed a contrarian, and a generous soul with his energy and service, Richard created an extraordinary legacy with LAF that will live on for decades to come."

We will be forever grateful for Richard's service and dedication to LAF, for his humor and presence, and for bringing the hopes and aspirations of landscape architects together in clear and impactful ways to help the discipline make its vital contribution in this defining chapter of human history.

The University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design, where Richard chaired the Department Landscape Architecture from 2013 to 2022 and co-founded the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology, has published a tribute, which includes reflections from those who worked with Richard. The school is planning an in-person celebration of his life and work for the fall of 2025.

Other reflections on Richard Weller's life and legacy have been published by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Landscape Australia, and World Landscape Architecture.