This is a continuation of D.C. Part One.

The third class that I was able to attend was a roundtable discussion involving

four Landscape Architects that have started their firms within the last year

like me, and have been in practice for 5 years and still a relatively new firm.

It was a fantastic discussion on how these people go throught their processes

from billing and marketing their firms to everyday design solutions.

The foruth and final class of the first day of the conference was something that

I am very passionate about, and one of the most important ideas that I would like to

bring back, and implement in our wonderful city.  The class was about connecting

children with nature.  Having been fortunate to work on several of the new schools that

have been constructed, or are under construction, or will be constructed, and a father,

this is something that we need to be so concerned with.  To give you a couple of things to

think about:

"Children are more home centered than any previous generation"

Free play is down approx 9 hours per week over the last 25 years, and 6 months to 6 year olds are

exposed to an average of 1.5 hours per day of electronic stimulation.

This is will be a blog for another day, but it just gives you a little idea about what our children are faced

with, and how important the right environment is to our children's attention, and development.

Here is a picture of the Washington Monument to complete Day Two!