ASLA awards Emerging Professional Medal to alum MaFe Gonzalez
The American Society of Landscape Architects honored Maria Fernanda “MaFe” Gonzalez (MLA 2022) with its 2025 Emerging Professional Medal. Selected by ASLA’s Board of Trustees, the medal is one of the highest honors the ASLA bestows each year.
Gonzalez is a landscape designer and botanist with a strong interest in ecology, taxonomy, and conservation of plants. Her journey into landscape architecture was inspired by her studies in botany where she saw a need to participate in world-making — especially to create spaces that re-establish reciprocal relationships between people and the environment. Currently a landscape designer at BASE Landscape Architecture in San Francisco, Gonzalez e is a passionate and purposeful practitioner who initiates or supports a variety of projects and visions. She is also a lecturer in the United States and Colombia and is a leader and researcher of academic and pro-bono initiatives.
She says:
“Landscape architecture is my way of joining my mind and my heart, becoming creative and innovative in a multidisciplinary way, taking part in the making of my surroundings, being who I am and creating my own practice. What inspires me about this profession is its complexity, its invitation to take a stand and be an advocate, and its enormous potential to transform the way we relate to each other and the environment.”