“We write to share our ideas about the world as it is,
and how we think it should be.”
Writers and Contributors
The blog would not be possible without the diverse working, thinking and collaboration of a growing team of fantastic contributors:
*
Aldo G. Burcheri. A designer whose interest in landscape architecture stems from his training at Chicago’s largest landscape design/build firm, Christy Webber Landscapes. His gardens have been featured in Cooking Light Magazine, American Nurseryman and Midwest Home & Garden. Working through the design process as a contractor encouraged Aldo to pursue his interest in the discipline. His projects explore the political agency of landscape systems, leveraging sites to solutions to regional issues. Aldo will graduate from the Harvard Graduate School of Design with an MLA in May 2012.
*
Julie Canter. Julie holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture (BSLA) with a dual concentration in Wetland Ecology and Art/Architectural History from Cornell University and a Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) from PennDesign.Julie currently works at PWP Landscape Architecture in Berkeley, California. She has worked on numerous projects which range in scale, budget, character, and complexity, bringing both design vision and an understanding of construction to the realization of projects. As a LEED-AP-BD+C professional, Julie is interested in implementing long term sustainable systems within the framework of progressive design.
*
Leo Robleto Costante. Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Leo finished his undergraduate studies in Urban Planning at the University of Cincinnati and holds a Masters from the AA in Landscape Urbanism. He is currently finishing his second Masters in Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania after working with several firms in London, Caracas and New York. He has lectured, published and taught in Venezuela, yet his work experience inside Caracas’ informal settlements was what really changed his perception of the relationship between landscape and cities. This became the foundation for his research on how landscape urbanism’s potential can become both infrastructure and armature for the benefit of cities.
*
Roman Chiu. Roman is a designer and landscape architect with Tom Leader Studio in Berkeley, CA. With a background in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master’s of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, Roman brings many perspectives on design to the board from product to urbanization. His interests lie in urban settings and the social aspect and utilization of public spaces. He has taught and lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, the Rhode Island School of Design and UC Berkeley.
*
Peter Chomko. A native of Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, Peter got his start in planning rethinking the spatial organization of the atypical warehouse environments (those of an arts-and-education nonprofit and a corporate library services outsourcing firm) where he worked. He is presently a Master of City Planning (2013) candidate at the University Of Pennsylvania School Of Design, with a concentration in community and economic development.
*
Carolyn Deuschle. Carolyn Deuschle is a Master’s of Landscape Architecture candidate at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Previously an editor at Princeton Architectural Press in New York, Carolyn is interested in making the discourse surrounding landscape architecture more accessible to a mass audience. Her writing has appeared in Landscape Architecture magazine and on DesignObserver.com.
*
Amelia Magida. Amelia is a landscape designer living, researching, working, and playing in Philadelphia. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania and Bachelor of Architecture from the Pratt Institute. She is weeks away to becoming a licensed landscape architect and applies her many talents at OLIN.
*
Melinda McMillan. Working in both her fields since graduating with dual Masters from the University of Pennsylvania in Architecture and Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Melinda has also been writing about design and social justice and consulting for a non-profit. She has been the recipient of awards for both her design work and her writing. Recent architectural projects have included a healing garden at a cancer center, a school and orphanage master plan in Haiti, and work in high-tech, religious, and medical fields.
*
Laura Mosca is a designer, writer and researcher based in San Francisco, CA. She holds a Masters in Architecture from California College of the Arts and a BA from Brown University. Her recent thesis work at CCA looked at the future of Olympic Games and Events-as-Spectacle, with a focus on designed modular structures that can fit within local communities and adapt post-games. She currently runs her own consulting practice that acts as an ambassador of design to people, organizations and cities.
*
Charly Nelson. A photographer, editor, and designer based in San Francisco, Charly’s photographic work explores the intersection of constructed landscapes and natural processes. She holds a Masters in Landscape Architecture degree which affords her a deeper understanding of the subjects she photographs. Charly’s greater body of work focuses on representation, visual communications, exhibits, and publishing as a means to promote the design industries.
*
Sarah Peck. The founder and editor of this website, Sarah is a designer and writer by training. She works as a communications specialist for the landscape architecture and planning firm SWA Group. She also lectures on design, landscape architecture, and writing and has been a guest critic for UC Berkeley, Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, and Penn’s School of Design. Interested in the tools with which designers communicate their ideas and the influence that landscape architects have on both our immediate and future environments, her work today looks at the power of our messages in shaping futures and ideas.
*
Brian Phelps. News junkie, amateur economist, twitterholic, and lover of cities: As a senior associate at Hawkins Partners, Inc., a landscape architecture and urban design office in Nashville, Tennessee, Brian Phelps explores viable market-based solutions for repairing our cities and improving our urban experiences. In addition, he is co-founder of sitephocus.com, where he blends his interest in photography, technology, and urban design to create an extensive on-line image library of projects from around the world.
*
Eliza Shaw Valk. An editor of this website, Eliza is delighted to help disseminate and articulate this elusive, nervy iteration of our profession. Her dance and performance training instilled the belief that participatory and revelatory experience can transform our relationships with the environment and one another. From this perspective, she seeks to integrate ecological processes, resource management, and socio-economic needs into the design of resilient, creative, and adaptable land use systems. She grew up in New York City and Kansas, and graduated from Oberlin College in art. Eliza holds master’s degrees in landscape architecture and city planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
*
Ronald Woudstra. Ronald received his masters degree in City and Regional Planning from Pratt, where he focused on the nexus between transportation planning and urban design, culminating in a master thesis on the planning of rapid surface transit (BRT and light rail) along Manhattan’s 42nd street. In New York, Ronald worked for the start-up planning firm The Street Plans Collaborative, where he contributed to the Open Streets Project and to the documentation of inventive small-scale spatial interventions titled “Tactical Urbanism.” He has also worked on the Bicycle Master Plan of Westminster, Colorado, and on various bicycle and pedestrian planning projects, amongst others in Brunswick (Maine), Miami, Allentown (Pennsylvania), and Rhode Island. He currently resides in his hometown of Rotterdam.
*
To join in the conversation, please see how to participate or contact the editors here.