At last night’s 2022 NZILA Firth Conference welcome event, Institute President Henry Crothers announced two new Life Members of Tuia Pito Ora New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects.

Dennis Scott and Jan Woodhouse received the honour at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland as part of NZILA’s 50th anniversary celebrations.

Jan Woodhouse says she is “incredibly honoured’ by the award. “It was never something that I would have expected would happen to me. I don't regard myself as a leader. I'm a 2IC.”

She says NZILA means a great deal to her and she is very proud of it. “I'm proud of us. I'm in awe of where it's got to from where we started.”

Dennis Scott is “immensely proud” of his Life Membership.“It is a prestigious award. It's not given out lightly” he says.

He also says NZILA has been “an extremely important organisation’ to him. ‘Certainly the members collectively and what everyone has achieved on a whole range of very diverse levels has been pretty exciting to witness over a 50 year period.”

Dennis’ Life Member citation begins by looking back at his career. “Dennis is past President of the Tuia Pito Ora - from 2009-2011. He began his career as a landscape architect in 1971 as one of the first students of the Lincoln landscape programme. Like many landscape students worldwide, Dennis avidly read McHarg’s seminal 1969 book, Design with Nature. This influenced his dissertation on developing an integrated catchment management methodology and profoundly influenced his practice throughout his professional life.”

The end of the citation looks at his work with the Institute. “Dennis has had a long association with the NZILA becoming an Associate Member in 1978, a Fellow in 2004, and the President of the Institute from 2009-2011

“Looking back at Dennis’s long and distinguished career, we can see how Ian McHarg’s words have guided his practice; Dennis was and still is influenced by McHarg’s vision of the role of landscape architects to restore the compromised, often polluted landscape through an understanding of the underlying ecological process. But Dennis has taken Mcharg’s insights, and over 30 years of practice, has included the community into his landscape practice, something Mcharg was reluctant or unable to do. Dennis’s insight is that a landscape architect’s responsibility goes beyond the environment to encompass how we must respond to the world.”

The Life Member citation for Jan Woodhouse begins; “Jan’s passion for the landscape and determination to succeed has seen her achieve distinction in three activity spheres, namely the development and advancement of the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Tuia Pito Ora (NZILA), her involvement with associated organisations, events and initiatives, and her practice work (when she finds the time to work for herself).

The citation says she “has served the NZILA and the landscape profession with honour, humility and distinction and in doing so has made an outstanding contribution to the profession and practice of landscape architecture in Aotearoa New Zealand.”

The citations ends with further tributes to Jan. “ Members of the Institute who know and have worked with Jan appreciate her cheerful and forgiving nature, her forthright and direct comments, and most of all her staunch commitment to the Institute and reliability to see through and excel in the tasks and initiatives she undertakes. Jan’s outstanding service and contribution to the Institute and the landscape profession over nearly 50 years is acknowledged and celebrated by her peers in this Life Membership Award of Tuia Pito Ora.”

In the videos below, the new Life Members talk about their careers and what NZILA means to them.