2022 Professional Awards
of the Potomac Chapter ASLA

The purpose of the award is to recognize local landscape architects whose lifetime achievements and contributions to the profession have a unique and lasting impact on the profession and/or our Chapter.  President Annie Varma, ASLA presented this year’s award to Douglas Hays, FASLA during the Chapter’s annual Awards Gala on May 19 at River Farm in Alexandria, VA.

2022 Lifetime Achievement Award

“Doug Hays is the quintessential landscape architect. He is at once greatly talented and exceptionally modest.  The depth and breadth of his talents and capabilities cover the spectrum of our profession.  He is adept at planning at a regional scale and construction detailing at full scale. He is equally comfortable working in the public sector and the private sector.  Doug reflects the best of our profession.”                     


Doug’s nearly 50 years of professional experience encompasses the widest range of landscape architectural project types, scales, and complexities, including park planning and design, institutional and governmental design, commercial and residential planning, streetscape, urban design, and garden and estate projects. In each of these, he blends established principles and the latest technologies to drive creative solutions. He was the first graduate of Virginia Tech’s Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program in 1974 and took part in a study abroad program at the University of Salzburg in 1972.

Currently, Doug serves as mentor to up-and-coming staff at Michael Vergason Landscape Architects, Ltd. (MVLA). Doug has been the Project Manager for several of MVLA’s most successful projects, such as the Normandy American Cemetery Visitor Center at Omaha Beach in Colleville-sur-Mer, France; the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial in Washington, DC; and Sundance Square Plaza in Fort Worth, Texas. He is also credited with numerous academic planning and design projects, including Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia; and Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania, among others. Before the pandemic, he served as an Adjunct Professor for 7 years at the Virginia Tech Graduate Landscape Architecture Program at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Center in Alexandria, Virginia.

Before joining MVLA, Doug served in both the public and private sectors. While at the National Park Service, he served as the Landscape Architect assigned to the White House during the Ford, Carter, and Reagan Administrations, and then as Project Coordinator for the reconstruction of the Filene Center at Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts. He was also an Associate while at EDAW and served as Vice President at HOH Associates, Inc.

Doug’s contribution to the profession was formally acknowledged in 2010, when he was inducted into the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows. He has also served as a Comprehensive Design Task Force Member for the White House. Doug is a member of the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Board, is licensed to practice in 4 states, and has achieved emeritus status in two others. His projects have received national recognition, including ASLA National Honor Awards for The NVRPA Scenic Easement Restoration (1996) and Gannett/USA Today Headquarters (2008).

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