Posted on May 20, 2022
Post categories: Faculty Landscape Architecture
We are saddened to share that Sally Schauman, Professor Emeritus, passed away on April 10, 2022. Having joined the faculty in 1980 as Associate Professor, Sally helped to establish the Master of Landscape Architecture Program, and served as Chair of the Department for 12 years. Within our BLA and MLA communities, Sally was known to be a strong influence whose impact continues to be felt among generations of landscape architects in this region and beyond. A true pioneer, Sally was the first female faculty member with tenure in the Department, and to date, the only woman to serve as a Chair for UW LA.
Sally received a liberal arts degree from Duke University, obtained a professional landscape architecture degree from North Carolina State University and a Master of Science in Resource Management from the University of Michigan. She pursued a career as a landscape architect in private and government service prior to joining the academic world, and her strong work as the Chief Landscape Architect to the USDA Soil Conservation Service (SCS) was recognized with a Loeb Fellowship in Advance Environmental Studies at Harvard University in 1976-77. She was a registered landscape architect and was recognized as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 1987 for her work with the SCS, and for her commitment to advancing education and research in the discipline of landscape architecture.
As a scholar Professor Schauman focused on the then emerging areas of visual landscape assessment, ecological rehabilitation and restoration, and place attachment. She took great pains to integrate the scholarship of each area into her teaching, and in some cases developed new interdisciplinary classes. Co-developed with colleagues from ecology and engineering, the Wetlands Studio, bridged design and science to advance the leading-edge practice of restoring urban and urbanizing wetlands in the Puget Sound region. The Wetlands Studio research and teaching collaboration produced several professional publications and book chapters, and served as a foundation at the University of Washington and beyond for understanding the potential of transdisciplinary education to address real world challenges.
Beyond creating integrative and immersive courses with the sciences, Sally was also a strong advocate for advancing gender equity in the built environment professions. She developed and taught a course for many years titled, Gender and the Landscape, which was taken by students across the UW and explored the important and ground-breaking advancements in the field of landscape architecture by women. Her advocacy of gender equity in professional and academic realms helped to shape the professional movement for recognizing the roles and leadership of women in the traditionally male-dominated professions of the built environments.
Sally’s teaching and leadership set the foundations for our mission and approach to educate landscape architecture students within the context of urban ecological design. Her commitment to urban environmental rehabilitation and community inclusion in these efforts are solidly grounded in the approach we take today.
Sally showed an enormous interest in supporting female students…And also related to that was the issue of research on women in landscape architecture. She was very important in the development of my career. When Louise Mozingo compiled the book, Women in Landscape Architecture: Essays on History and Practice, she needed another chapter to put all of this into a broader context. Sally suggested to Louise that I could contribute that piece. This also helped me realize that the early interviews that I had done of female landscape architects were important. She helped me focus on the unspoken importance of women in our profession…
During her time as the Department Chair, the graduate program was approved as a professional degree and refined and redirected to not only train students as the next generation of professional landscape architects but to encourage them with the opportunities to reach beyond traditional pathways of learning to bridge design education with the sciences and humanities.
Sally taught me what it means to be a mentor. I most likely would not be a landscape architect if not for Sally. She understood the impact of public practice and the value landscape architects uniquely bring to the table, which has informed, guided, and inspired me to this day.
Professor Schauman served on numerous boards, including the editorial board of Landscape Journal, the leading scholarly journal for landscape architects and other scholars interested in the landscape, and as a Trustee of the Arbor Fund, the board that oversees the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. Sally played a continuing role in the Bloedel Reserve with her scholarship on therapeutic landscape experiences, including a piece discussing the Bloedel Reserve featured on the Therapeutic Landscapes Network blog. Sally later collaboratively introduced the Strolls for Well-Being Program to the Bloedel Reserve, and is listed as a co-author of Strolls for Well-Being Bloedel Reserve Nature Walk book.
Strolls for Well-Being at Bloedel Reserve from Bloedel Reserve on Vimeo.
Sally Schauman was a critical figure in the development and evolution of Bloedel Reserve and was a former Board of Trustees member. In 2013, Sally began in earnest to explore ways to unlock the therapeutic power of nature at the Reserve. She connected with Ruth McCaffrey, who led the development of a Strolls for Well-being program at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Garden in Florida. Together, they worked to adapt the original program to the Reserve’s complex landscapes. Since the inception of Strolls for Well-being in 2014, the program has served more than 2,000 people from all walks of life, at no cost. Participants use words like “transformational,” “inspiring,” and “uplifting” to describe their experiences, and scientifically valid tests demonstrate improvement in participants’ attitudes, outlook on life, and willingness to make positive changes. Sally’s work at Bloedel enriched the lives of many, many people. Thank you Sally!
She has also served on a number of National Endowment for the Arts review panels. Her role as a nationally recognized educator was also manifested in her work for 4 years as Chair of the Council of Education of ASLA. This resulted in new accreditation standards that are now used by LAAB, the national accrediting board in landscape architecture. At the University of Washington she served as Chair of two campus committees including the Law School and the Faculty Committee on the design of the UW Bothell campus.
I first met Sally when she somehow found me in the Civil and Environmental Engineering department and invited me to speak in her class. After doing that a few times, I said to her, “This is a great class. Do you mind if I come over and teach it with you?” She said, “Come on over,” and that started a 15-year collaboration. Her concept, and what attracted me to her class, was to find “clients” who had actual project needs that students could fulfill and then inspire those students to go all the way from data gathering, to concept generation, to design development plans, to presenting their work to the client–in a 10-week quarter! I have the fondest memories of Sally and that time, which was a true highlight of my UW career.
Professor Schauman retired from the Department of Landscape Architecture at the UW in 2000 after 21 years of dedicated service and returned to North Carolina where she continued to teach as an adjunct professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University for many years. During her career, Professor Schauman had a tremendously positive impact on the discipline of landscape architecture, influencing its direction and educating generations of landscape architects, many of whom are now directing design and research teams and leading professional firms. She has been an inspiration for many here at UW and the other places she called home and will be deeply missed.
Sally cherished her time in Seattle and the UW, but her heart was in Durham and her first love was Duke. Her ashes will be interred on July 30 in the Memorial section of the beautiful Sarah P. Duke Gardens near a grand magnolia, a stately camellia and the beautiful azalea that was in full bloom the day of her passing.
Upon her retirement from the UW, the Sally Schauman Scholarship Fund was established to support the emergence of new generations of landscape architects as they work to build on the strong foundations of the discipline and field to assist in shaping communities and places for the future.
