Gene Bressler, FASLA

Bio

Professor Emeritus Gene Bressler, FASLA, serves as Interim Department Head for the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning this academic year. He previously served as head of the Department of Landscape Architecture at NC State from 2006 until his retirement in 2018.

During his tenure as department head, Professor Bressler led the faculty and students in initiatives that resulted in:

• The revision of the MLA graduate curriculum and development and implementation of 12 new courses;
• Two successful reaccreditation processes of the MLA program resulted in many accolades and “no recommendations affecting accreditation”;
• The implementation of the award-winning Design + Build program;
• The University’s awarding and naming 2 LAEP Professors as University Faculty Scholars;
• Numerous national and regional awards from the American Society of Landscape Architecture given to students and faculty for their achievements in planning and design.
• The development and annual releases of the MLA Handbook;
• The building of strong relationships with the professional community including initiation of the department’s Lecture Series and the Student/Practitioner Mentor Program;
• The planning and implementation of Design Week 2017 and 2018, all department “design charrettes” focused on several eastern North Carolina communities devastated by the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew and other historic flood events;

During his term as department head, Bressler served on the: Dean’s Administrative Council, the Steering Committee for the College’s Annual Urban Design Forum, the University’s Campus Review Panel, and the Provost’s Department Head Advisory Council.  Appointed by Governor Bev Perdue, he served on North Carolina Board of Landscape Architects from 2009 to 2013. Since 2009 he has been involved with the Blue Ridge Road Corridor Alliance and currently serves as a member of its Board of Directors.

Prior to joining NC State Bressler served as Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Colorado, Denver (1997-2006). His research and teaching activities focused on urban growth, sustainable development, and planning and design strategies challenging sprawling suburban development. He co-authored “Oh Give Me Land, Lots of Land” with Professor Allan Wallis, published in Healing the West by Professor Patricia Limerick. For several years, he co-taught an annual series of advanced interdisciplinary/collaborative graduate design studios, “Challenging Suburbia,” with architecture Professor Keith Loftin that explored design alternatives to existing residential community development paradigms.  In 2003, he was named director of the Colorado Center for Sustainable Urbanism responsible for conceiving and directing Colorado Tomorrow 2004 and 2005, interdisciplinary public conferences addressing population growth dynamics and urban development challenges facing the state.  He was a founding member and president of the Colorado Community Design Network and consulting principal with the Denver-based firm’s Landscape Strategies and Design Studios West.  And he chaired the College’s Information Technologies Task Force creating and implementing the College’s Interdisciplinary IT Strategic Plan resulting in the deployment of state-of-the-art computer-aided design, visualization and 3D and GIS modeling hardware and software technologies.

From 1971-85, prior to his work in Colorado, Bressler served on the faculty of the University of Oregon, Eugene. His teaching and research activities pioneered digital landscape suitability modeling technologies addressing urban development opportunities and constraints, infrastructure strategies and costs, and potential environmental impacts informing alternative urban planning design and development strategies.  This led to his accepting a position with Dynamic Graphics, Inc., Alameda CA (1984-1995), the developer of internationally recognized software used in numerous mapping, modeling, and visualization technologies in terrain, natural resource, national defense, and land use applications.

In 2006, Bressler was named a recipient of the Outstanding Administrator of the Year by the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) for “his leadership and contributions to teaching.” He was elected Fellow by the American Society of Landscape Architects and delivered the fall 2010 College of Design Commencement Address, “Game Changing One’s Way to the Main Thing.” The North Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects named him a recipient of the 2017 President’s Council Award “in recognition of his major achievements for the advancement of the profession.”

In 2018, in honor of Professor Bressler’s achievements and contributions, the College of Design established, the Eugene H. Bressler Landscape Architecture Faculty Award Endowment that “provides funds to ensure extraordinary research, teaching and outreach, opportunities for faculty academic enrichment.”