Mark A. Hoistad – Region 4 Candidate
Mark A. Hoistad, Affiliate ASLA over the course of his career has had the opportunity to design projects of varying scales on five continents. Over the last ten years his efforts have been focused on China where he has been engaged in both academic and professional domains. Academically Professor Hoistad has taught both multidisciplinary studios and urbanism seminars both at his home institution at the University of Nebraska and at universities in China including Tianjin, XiAn Jiaotong, Chongqing Universities and the Harbin Institute of Technology, having been named as an adjunct faculty at Chongqing and XiAn Jioatong. He has also been invited to deliver several keynote addresses at academic conferences on various topics related to his research focus, Sustainable Urbanism. Professionally Mark Hoistad has engaged in a range of conceptual and schematic design projects working with firms in Beijing, Shanghai and XiAn. These projects, following his broad interests, have ranged from new central business districts to residential and mixed use urban design areas to urban heritage preservation site development. He is currently the Director of the Landscape Architecture Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Mark Hoistad served as an administrative officer for over a decade. These include serving as the founding Director, and once again currently, the Director of the Landscape Architecture Program in addition to the Director of the Architecture Program and Associate Dean of the College for a decade. During his first term as the Director of the Landscape Architecture he successfully led the development and approval of the Program, the establishment of a multidisciplinary faculty and successfully achieved candidacy status for the program. Outside the university, in addition to award winning professional practice, I have been an active citizen serving as the president of in town Neighborhood Association in Houston, as a Planning Commissioner in my current home city and as a design review board member at both my University and the largest Community College System in the State. Collectively, I believe this demonstrates I am qualified to make a positive contribution to the organization.
As an architect, I do not come to the pursuit of this position following a traditional path. I have no specific agenda other than to serve the organization with as much energy and enthusiasm as I can. I have reviewed the obligations and responsibilities for the position and can confirm that I am able to do any and all the tasks assigned to me.
My research focus is on the pursuit of sustainable urbanism. Most of my work in recent years has been in China where I believe the battle to reverse the effects of global warm is most acute. Sustainability has become a semantically overloaded term these days, but for me this is something to embrace not to run away from. Basic concerns about water and food need to make their way to the front of city building not a footnote for engineers to solve. The blending of the natural world and human settlement is becoming more and more acute as the migration into urban areas is making humanity an urban species. Research is indicating more and more that exposure to ‘nature’ in some form is critical to human health. Our cultural landscapes have long been an important part of who we are and the preservation of these is another part of the equation for the future. Obviously there is more that can be said, but I will stop here in the interest of time. It is clear, however, that a broad inquiry into performance must be an equal contributor to the creation of future environments along with the appreciation of aesthetic merit. Much of my work, in this respect has always preferred to find the space in between fields and the vital connections and overlays that will achieve a more sustainable outcome. It is this voice that I will bring to the Board as a Regional Director. As an outsider, having never served as an officer in CELA and as a non-landscape architect, I will do my best to be a representative leader. During my term, I pledge to visit all the schools in my region and bring that perspective to the table in Board meetings. It should also be said that I am doing this because no one else has stepped forward. My aspirations are, as I said in the beginning to be of service. Should I be approved to serve in this position, I will do my best to get to know everyone better and make the most positive contribution I can to the organization