Speakers

Over the past two decades of practice, Woltz and his team have developed a unique approach to the designed landscape using ecological and cultural research as the foundation for designing meaningful contemporary landscapes that inspire deep connections between people and the natural world. Public landscapes in the US and abroad form the majority of the firm’s design work. These include parks, botanic gardens, arboreta, and educational and cultural campuses. The balance of the work is related to conservation of biodiversity within large productive and agricultural landscapes.

Woltz was educated at the University of Virginia and holds Masters degrees in Landscape Architecture and Architecture. He also holds an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the State University of New York, Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse. He was recognized with the Land for People Award by the Trust for Public Land in 2019 and as one of the most creative people in business by Fast Company in 2017. The Wall Street Journal named him the Design Innovator of the Year in 2013. Woltz currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

Fascinated by the urban environment, Michelle Jeffrey Delk is a passionate champion of the public realm. Based in New York City, Michelle is a partner and landscape architect with Snøhetta. She works to cultivate trans-disciplinary collaboration for the creative advancement of our public environment. Clear thinking and collaborative principles characterize Michelle’s leadership of a myriad of dynamic projects, while her unencumbered vision allows for concerted explorations that embrace experimentation and improvisation within complicated social environments.

Michelle’s enthusiasm is reflected in her commitment to design and leadership within her firm and community. Currently she’s an active board member for the Urban Design Forum in New York City and is often invited as a speaker at nfluential conferences, universities, and communities throughout the world. Informed by these various involvements, she seeks to discover and expand the urban landscape vernacular, furthering positive dialog between our current and future urban vision.

With a natural ability for engaging diverse community and client intricacies, Michelle guides complex projects ranging from master plans and brownfield redevelopments to realizations of urban plazas, parks, streetscapes, and riverfronts. Currently, she leads several efforts with Snøhetta, including the design of the Willamette Falls Riverwalk in Oregon, the Blaisdell Center Master Plan in Honolulu, and the re-imagined design of a significant public plaza in midtown Manhattan.

Kate is a landscape architect at Sasaki. Her project leadership, strategic thinking, design eye, and technical skills have been instrumental in the success of diverse projects ranging from master planning to site-scale work. As a naturally interdisciplinary thinker, she excels at collaborating across disciplines to craft elegant, contextual solutions to complex design challenges.

Prior to discovering landscape architecture, Kate was a high school math and physics teacher in the Boston Public School system. Her passion for inspiring and empowering urban youth infuses her work as a landscape architect. She values engaging stakeholders in the design of their own urban public spaces through lively workshops, and is particularly interested civic open spaces that support the play and learning of city children. Kate pursues independent research on children’s outdoor environments, including schoolyards, playscapes, and outdoor classrooms.

Kate holds a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Massachusetts, a master’s degree in education from Lesley University, and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Dartmouth College. She earned the 2011 National Olmsted Scholar award, the highest honor of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF), for her work on urban schoolyards, and has since served on LAF’s board of directors. Kate remains active in the academic world through teaching appointments at the Rhode Island School of Design and University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as through volunteer work with local public schools.

Nate directs the landscape architecture practice at RIOS with a focus on dynamic public spaces.

His interest in landscape design as a form of storytelling drew him to Los Angeles after two decades of practice in Seattle and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Nate’s projects, including downtown central parks in Denver, Houston, Seattle, Los Angeles, and Palm Springs, unearth stories of place as catalysts for authentic urban life. Nate teaches and lectures on landscape design at universities and conferences around the country. He has been active on the boards of the national Landscape Architecture Foundation and numerous urban environmental and civic groups.

Nate’s current research interest centers around the culture of comfort in places that experience extreme heat. As many regions are growing hotter and as more people are migrating to precisely these regions, what can we learn from global cultures past and present about how to survive? From the urban forest and breeze blocks to porch swings and evening strolls, how do people beat the heat? The contemporary application of this collective wisdom is inventive ways to reduce dependence on air conditioning and attract people to be together outside.

Lucinda Sanders is a Design Partner and the President and CEO of OLIN. She has a core belief that transforming thinking transforms place, and she is eager to bring this idea to the design table wherever she works. Lucinda is responsible for continually shaping OLIN as a leader in design excellence, introducing the next practices to answer the complex challenges of the 21st century. She predominantly practices in urban environments where people, ecology, culture, and technology can create fantastic synergies capable of transforming the places made by former generations, yet still honoring those relics. She brings enormous energy to projects and enjoys the role of explorer / designer, yet is also deft at listening and dialoguing with clients and communities to ensure their ambitions are realized.

Lucinda is specifically involved on boards and with academia dedicated to the advancement of the field of landscape architecture, urban design and planning. She co-created and co-facilitates the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership. She co-founded OLIN LABS, the research arm of OLIN. In addition, she has led the design of many of OLIN’s signature award-winning urban projects. These projects vary in size and scale, from ambitious urban designs, infused with the most forward thinking ideas on resilience and sustainability, to exquisitely executed plazas and parks.

Simon David is the Founder & Creative Director of OSD, a multidisciplinary design group with offices in New York City and the Rocky Mountain West. OSD believes that critical questions of our collective future should be answered by innovative and integrated design of all parts of the built environment. OSD looks to a future that moves beyond the conventional practice of constructing buildings first and hoping social space and ecology work around them. OSD instead asks: “what does the land need, and what do people need?, and how can we design from the outside-in so that all parts of the built environment support these needs?”.

In addition to leading OSD, Simon lectures and teaches on resilient urban environments, the future of mobility, and multidisciplinary design.

Raised in Dallas, Allen spent his childhood fishing at the lakes in East Texas, which he credits with instilling both a sense of independence and a deep love for landscape. With a Renaissance spirit, he studied physics as an undergraduate before pursuing an MFA in photography, then working in California’s burgeoning tech industry in the late 1990s. Though the rapid pace of the industry ‘did feel like we were changing the world’, he says, it also felt abstract; Allen craved something more tangible – landscape architecture, he found, coupled a creative practice with opportunities for innovation and narrative storytelling along with a chance to apply the structure and rigor of his physics background.

In 2009, he established SALT Landscape Architects, steadily growing the business over a decade into a flourishing boutique firm. A culture-driven office, SALT prioritizes collaboration and ‘turning the chair around’ – encouraging input and feedback from all team members. And, for Allen, assembling a team with diverse backgrounds and experience is crucial. A strong egalitarian thread runs through not only the company culture but also its projects, with a focus on social justice and environmentalism, and a mission to help ‘humanize the city’ and create more equitable open and green spaces. Allen and his team are passionately committed to helping tackle the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles, with affordable housing projects and permanent supportive housing projects.

Along with large scale, multi-acre projects such as institutional retreats and urban parks, Allen is drawn to quirky, innovative, multi-sensory projects, at the confluence of history, art, and design. Key to SALT’s ethos is the absence of single authorship, and the ambition that every design and project should always be ‘more about the user than the author’.

Allen is a member of ASLA and was the co-chair of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation Pedestrian Advisory Committee. He is currently providing pro-bono consulting to the Take Back the Boulevard and Rock the Boulevard initiatives, where he is helping community leaders shape a plan to bring complete street improvements to Colorado and Eagle Rock Boulevards in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles. Allen is also a member of the Council District 14 Median Advisory Committee, where he is helping to develop a sustainable, low-water, and low-maintenance planting strategy for medians in the district.

Joseph Sutkowi is the Waterfront Design Associate Director at the Waterfront Alliance, leading the Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines (WEDG) program. He brings significant experience in ports and waterfront operations, economic development policy, and infrastructure. Previously, Joseph was a Senior Consultant at Karp Strategies, a New York City-based urban planning and economic development consulting firm where he led projects in infrastructure and sustainability. In previous roles, Joseph has also worked with Living Cities on equitable procurement, a New York City Council member on transportation, the American Red Cross in disaster response operations, and the University of Michigan in foundation relations. Joseph resides in Queens, New York with his wife, Katie. He holds a Bachelor of Public Policy from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Public Administration from New York University.

Story Wiggins is landscape architect with a background in historic preservation and land stewardship. Her intuitive approach to design varies by project, but aims always to honor the land, exercise restraint, and allow for evolution.
Story received a Masters in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley and a BA in Historic Preservation and French from the College of Charleston. During her time at UC Berkeley, she worked for the National Park Service in their Cultural Landscape Program. She has lived and studied abroad in Paris and Rome, where she was inspired by how cities are brought to life when public space is valued and tended.
She joined Terremoto’s San Francisco office in 2016, where she leads projects of various scales and types, including high-end residential, commercial and agricultural. Her work has been featured in Gardenista and Architectural Digest. Story is co-lead of Terremoto’s ‘Land and Labor’ internal working group, which advocates for the building and gardening trades and tradespeople that make our projects possible.

From innovative community workshops, to design and construction administration, Sarah has successfully led projects that reflect strong contemporary design and a commitment to sustainable best management practices and ideals.

With over 15 years at Field Operations, Sarah is leading the office’s Philadelphia studio and is the Principal-in-Charge of several significant public realm projects, including Portland Riverplace in Portland, OR, Met Park in Arlington, VA, the Georgetown Canal Plan in Washington, D.C., and a media company campus in Los Angeles. Sarah was the Principal-in-Charge for a multi-phase, massive transformation of Chicago’s Navy Pier. She was also the project manager and lead designer for the award winning Tongva Park in downtown Santa Monica, Central Green at the Philadelphia Navy Yards, and the Woodland Discovery Playground in Memphis, TN. Sarah’s strong leadership and impeccable organizational skills translated into on-time and on-budget delivery of these highly-complex projects.

Outside the office, Sarah works to promote the advancement of sustainability within the field of Landscape Architecture and was significantly involved with the development of SITES®, the most comprehensive international system for developing and evaluating sustainable landscapes. Chicago’s Navy Pier was the first gold-certified SITES® project and the Woodland Discovery Playground was the first certified pilot project.

As a respected professional within her field, Sarah has lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, Pratt University, Chicago Ideas Week, and at national and state AIA, ASLA, Greenbuild, and NeoCon conferences. She was also a lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design for five years.

Sarah earned her Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania, where she won the Ian L. McHarg Prize for Excellence, and her Bachelor of Arts in the Growth and Structure of Cities degree from Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges, where she received the Bolton Foundation Award. Sarah is a registered landscape architect in Pennsylvania, California, and Florida, and is on the board for Friends of the Wissahickon Park and the Dean’s Council at PennDesign.

Megan is a registered landscape architect and urban designer at James Corner Field Operations. Megan is currently leading multiple projects in Philadelphia, including a new major waterfront redevelopment and a central urban plaza, and the office’s contributions to the Tidal Basin Ideas Lab in Washington, D.C. Previously Megan was the project manager for a number of Field Operations’ high-profile public realm projects over the years, including the redesign of Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall, a 1-mile long, 14-acre streetscape project in downtown Minneapolis, from the winning design competition entry through construction. She was the lead designer of the winning competition entry for the Presidio Parklands project in San Francisco as well as Seattle’s Central Waterfront Framework Plan and Concept Design, and led early concept studies for the High Line Spur in New York.

As a lecturer in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, she teaches graduate design studios and courses in media and representation. She is also the co-editor of Via Dirt (MIT Press, 2012), which critically explores landscape’s role in contemporary design practice.

Megan earned her Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Architecture degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was awarded the prestigious Ian L. McHarg Prize for Excellence in Ecological Design, and her Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University. Megan is a registered landscape architect in Pennsylvania.

Katherine Harvey joined RIOS as a Studio Director for our Landscape Architecture Studio. Her training as both an architect and landscape architect is aligned with the practice’s goal of breaking down boundaries between the design disciplines to create holistic experiences.

She has worked on a range of projects from campus master-planning to neighborhood parks, all with the goal of serving public clients. Many of her projects have been exhibited and published nationally. She received her Master in Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania where she received the George Madden Boughton Prize. She is currently a lecturer at University of Southern California.

Jennifer (Jenny) Jones is a landscape architect from Virginia with a background in the science and theory of the environment. Her multidisciplinary training and her experince as a science teacher shape her approach to landscape design, which considers integrating natural systems, encouragement of exploratory learning, and thinking at all scales of space and time.
Jenny started out her design career with OLIN, working on a range of projects, from one of the most iconic coporate campuses in Cupertino, CA, to hospitals and college campuses, to master planning for a historic home and garden in Rhode Island. She was a designer and project manager for a few campus landscape projects at UCLA, using native plants, planting on structure, and implementing low-impact design water strategies. While at Rios Clementi Hale, Jenny was a project manager and designer for the redesign of the Rose Garden at Descanso Gardens, as well as a large mixed-use urban development in San Francisco.

Since joining Terremoto, Jenny has worked on small and large residential projects, multifamily housing, and educational gardens. One of her favorite projects, Test Plot, is a collaborative community garden experiment in Elysian Park, and will be ongoing for years to come.

Jessie Salazar is the founder of Salazar Landscaping (SLA), an employment social enterprise that provides landscape training, permanent employment and union sponsorship to at-risk youth in South Central and South East Los Angeles. Graduates of the program go on to install projects designed by landscape architects for public clients such as the Los Angeles Unified School District. Jessie is passionate about social justice and labor and land justice issues within the landscape industry. Jessie is a graduate of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s Landscape Architecture program.