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Welcome 

Here you'll find an overview of my work in landscape architecture and urban planning. I focus on contextual and ecology-informed design, inclusive green places in cities, and novel and restored ecosystems. I've collaborated with action research colleagues on resilience-building projects in south Asia, Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa—places that struggle with the negative impacts of climate change, globalization, socio-political upheavals and more. I'm currently researching convivial greenstreets in urban cores and the state of professional landscape planting practices in the northeast US, with a focus on climate change and biodiversity. PDFs of most of my publications are here.

During my +8 years of consulting in Ontario I was fortunate to have some great mentors and plenty of talented role models from multiple professions: landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, applied ecology and botany, archaeology, architecture, economic analysis, soil science, and engineering (water resources / hydrology, civil, structural, lighting, geotechnical, coastal). It wasn't until I shifted to campus that I realized multi- and interdisciplinarity weren't unreservedly accepted as a good ways to tackle many complex problems. As an academic, I periodically took on project-based work to stay current in the field.

Since arriving at Penn State University in 1993, I've mostly taught advanced studio courses at multiple scales in both urban and regional contexts, as well as courses focusing on plants and applied ecology. Over the years I led or co-led over 40 public scholarship courses that introduced students to messy and exhilarating challenges beyond campus. 

From 1996–1999 and 2008–2023, my Pittsburgh Studio introduced upper-year students to designing in and with underserved post-industrial neighborhoods. Free of the conventional client-consultant model, and through the Penn State Center–Pittsburgh, our hosts invited us in as partners. This award-winning 'engaged studio' was catalytic. It nurtured mutually beneficial reciprocal learning, genuine collaboration, and co-authorship that prompted advocacy within the community.

I retired from Penn State in July, 2024, but remain open to collaborations and teaching stints.

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Students, alums and colleagues:  If you are interested in my thoughts on a range of current issues, please see Dear Students. My two main concerns often drive many other big problems. They are:

• The global rise of far right nationalism and the subsequent discord and erosion of universal human rights. Philosopher Albert Camus, speaking in the U.S. shortly after WWII, gave warning: “Take care, when a democracy is sick, fascism comes to its bedside. But it is not to get the news.”

• Anthropogenic climate change caused by persistently high emissions of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. The scientific consensus on human-caused climate change exceeds 99% in the peer reviewed scientific literature.

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Contact me if you'd like 

a PDF of my CV.