Aaron Seward

Editor in Chief

The Architect’s Newspaper

Aaron Seward is Editor-in-Chief of The Architect’s Newspaper. Seward is an award-winning editor whose career has centered on interpreting architecture for the profession and the general public. He was editor of Texas Architect magazine for six years and prior to that held several positions at AN, including executive editor. In addition to those publications, Seward’s writing on architecture, culture, and the built environment has appeared in Architect, Curbed, Domus, Metropolis, and other publications. He has a BA in Literature, Writing and the Arts from The New School for Social Research.

Dionne Darling

VP, Brand Partnerships

Architect’s Newspaper

Dionne Darling has been with The A|N Media Group for over six years. As A|N’s Associate Publisher, she manages A|N’s Texas headquarters and handles accounts in the West, Southwest and Europe territories. Dionne has over 28 years of direct B2B sales, management and business development experience.

Thomas L. Woltz

Principal

Nelson Byrd Woltz

Over the past two decades of practice, Thomas L. Woltz, FASLA, CLARB 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.

Aaron Seward

Editor in Chief

The Architect’s Newspaper

Aaron Seward is Editor-in-Chief of The Architect’s Newspaper. Seward is an award-winning editor whose career has centered on interpreting architecture for the profession and the general public. He was editor of Texas Architect magazine for six years and prior to that held several positions at AN, including executive editor. In addition to those publications, Seward’s writing on architecture, culture, and the built environment has appeared in Architect, Curbed, Domus, Metropolis, and other publications. He has a BA in Literature, Writing and the Arts from The New School for Social Research.

Mark Fusco

National Sales Manager

Bison IP

Mark Fusco, LEED AP, GRP is the National Sales Manager for Bison Innovative Products and has comprehensive rooftop deck and green roof construction experience. A decade of experience with Bison and a decade of experience at Denver Botanic Gardens have given Mark the expertise to assist architects, developers, designers, and installers with all their project needs. The synthesis of combining rooftop amenity spaces, pools, pergolas, and green roofs has now become the focus of Mark’s work. Mark is most fulfilled when working with the Bison Sales Team, assisting clients with solutions for their projects. His vision and ability to nurture relationships lead to long-term solutions and success. Mark has degrees in Landscape Design, Environmental Science, and Marketing.

Mike Anderson

Commercial Sales Manager

Unilock

Eric Gilbey

Product Marketing Manager

Vectorworks

Eric Gilbey, PLA uses his professional experience as a practicing landscape architect and his experience in CAD and BIM in his role as product marketing manager for the landscape industries at Vectorworks, Inc., where he continues to develop an understanding of design and visualization workflows used by land planning and site design professionals.

Mette Skjold

Chief Executive Officer

SLA

Mette Skjold is a partner and CEO of SLA and has more than 20 years of experience in sustainable urban planning and architecture, solving some of today’s most challenging urban problems. Thus, Mette deeply understands creating high-quality, green public spaces to improve public health and stimulate social interactions while helping urban challenges regarding climate, sustainability, economy and social diversity. Besides her master’s degree in architecture from Aarhus School of Architecture, Mette holds an international master’s degree in Leadership and Innovation from Copenhagen Business School.

Timothy Schuler

Contributing Editor

Landscape Architecture Magazine

Timothy A. Schuler is an award-winning journalist and magazine writer whose work focuses on the intersection of the built and natural environments. An editor at Landscape Architecture Magazine since 2015, his writing has appeared in Metropolis, Bloomberg CityLab, The Architect’s Newspaper, Places Journal, Curbed, and FLUX Hawaiʻi, among other outlets. His essay, “The Middle of Everywhere,” was included on a list of the most notable science and nature writing in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2020. He lives in Kansas.

Simon David

Founding Principal

OSD

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.

Sarah Weidner Astheimer

Principal

James Corner Field Operations

From innovative community workshops, to design and construction administration, Sarah Weidner Astheimer, RLA, ASLA 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 Born

Senior Associate

James Corner Field Operations

Megan Born, RLA, ASLA 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.

Lucinda R. Sanders

CEO and Partner

OLIN

Lucinda R. Sanders, FASLA 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.

Allen Compton

Founder / Principal

SALT Landscape Architects

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.

Aaron Seward

Editor in Chief

The Architect’s Newspaper

Aaron Seward is Editor-in-Chief of The Architect’s Newspaper. Seward is an award-winning editor whose career has centered on interpreting architecture for the profession and the general public. He was editor of Texas Architect magazine for six years and prior to that held several positions at AN, including executive editor. In addition to those publications, Seward’s writing on architecture, culture, and the built environment has appeared in Architect, Curbed, Domus, Metropolis, and other publications. He has a BA in Literature, Writing and the Arts from The New School for Social Research.

Mark Fusco

National Sales Manager

Bison IP

Mark Fusco, LEED AP, GRP is the National Sales Manager for Bison Innovative Products and has comprehensive rooftop deck and green roof construction experience. A decade of experience with Bison and a decade of experience at Denver Botanic Gardens have given Mark the expertise to assist architects, developers, designers, and installers with all their project needs. The synthesis of combining rooftop amenity spaces, pools, pergolas, and green roofs has now become the focus of Mark’s work. Mark is most fulfilled when working with the Bison Sales Team, assisting clients with solutions for their projects. His vision and ability to nurture relationships lead to long-term solutions and success. Mark has degrees in Landscape Design, Environmental Science, and Marketing.