| Alumni Profiles |
|
|
Ph.D., 1995 Education
Background Eran Ben Joseph’s professional background, prior to entering the Ph.D. Program at Berkeley, was as a landscape architect and urban planner in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the United States. He was the founding principal of BNBJ, a planning landscape architecture firm in Tel-Aviv, Israel. LAEP Experience While attending Berkeley the program was in the forefront of a renewed interest in the redesigning and planning of suburbs. Eran’s research on suburban street standards and regulations led to the publishing of the book, Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities (co-authored with Professor Michael Southworth). Eran found that the LAEP program provided a great opportunity for multidisciplinary interactions and learning within CED and beyond. “The Bay Area is one of the best places to study and engage in the issues facing the landscape architecture profession in the 21st century.” Professional Life After LAEP Currently Eran is a Professor of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research and teaching interests include standards and regulations of urban design, site planning technologies, and urban simulation. He has led national and international multi-disciplinary projects in Singapore, Barcelona, China, and Washington, DC, among other places. Links Keywords urban design, streetscape
MLA Three-Year First Professional Degree, 2005 Education
Background Anita Bueno's background in traveling and gardening and her strong environmental ethic led her to study landscape architecture. Before she entered the MLA program, she had worked in a diverse range of job capacities, including as an estate gardener, retail nursery plant buyer, welder, bicycle mechanic, commercial fisherman, and custom wood furniture finisher. LAEP Experience One highlight while in the MLA program was the opportunity for Anita to give a paper at the Council for Educators in Landscape Architecture, held in New Zealand. She was able to experience the New Zealand landscape and discuss the challenges of public land management, recreation vs. conservation, and cultural diversity in land use. She remained focused on that theme by taking the thesis/professional project option and working for a semester for the Inyo National Forest in Bishop, California. What she learned in conservation, re-vegetation, wildlife habitat, and stakeholder workshop facilitation she now uses daily on a residential scale with her clients. Professional Life After LAEP Since graduating Anita has obtained a state contractor's license and is running her own design/build firm creating ecologically sensitive gardens in Berkeley. Keywords residential design, design/build
MLA Three-Year First Professional Degree, 2002 Education
Background Prior to attending UC Berkeley, Allegra Bukojemsky worked as a biologist and industrial design consultant, as well as back-country mule packer and horse trainer. Her work and research included environmental enrichment research and design for zoo and lab animals. LAEP Experience Allegra entered the MLA program with the intention of specializing in zoo exhibit design, with a strong interest and understanding of how exhibit design influences animal behavior and visitor understanding; ultimately conservation education. But all this changed when she took LD ARCH 201 on the San Leandro Creek and the LD ARCH 205 studio on Montana’s Highway 93. These courses broadened her interest to include natural habitats and people’s interactions within them. Meanwhile, Linda Jewell’s courses on materials created the greatest design perception shift, opening Allegra’s eyes to a new way of seeing and designing. Because of her passion for all aspects of sustainable design, Allegra also took an ARCH 201 studio on sustainable student housing for UC Merced. Professional Life After LAEP Allegra gained her LEED accreditation immediately after graduation. Allegra is currently a landscape architect and the leader of the San Francisco Bay Bioregion office of Biohabitats, an ecological restoration, conservation planning and regenerative design firm. Prior to joining Biohabitats she worked with R. David Scheer (CED M.Arch) in Alaska as partner and co-founder of DnA Design; as a restoration designer for Wildlands, Inc. a mitigation banking company; and as an landscape designer at April Phillips Design Works, Inc., in Sausalito, California. Allegra has become an active participant in a number of organizations advocating for more sustainable design methods and is currently the co-chair of the ASLA Sustainable Design and Development Professional Practice Network. Keywords ecological restoration
MLA/EP, 2000 Education
Background After she graduated from Princeton, Sharon Danks worked for a small environmental group in Washington, DC, assisting with research and documentation of sustainable community planning. She then moved to California and worked for three years for the UC San Diego Extension Division developing science-related continuing education programs for K-12 teachers and college faculty. LAEP Experience At Berkeley, Sharon was in the Environmental Planning MLA-MCP program and focused on ecological design. Her thesis on "ecological schoolyards" was influenced by faculty mentors who helped shape her research and challenged her to think critically and creatively. Professional Life After LAEP After graduating from UCB, Sharon worked for EDAW, Inc., in San Francisco. As a recipient of the Scott Fellowship she was able to travel abroad to continue her research on "ecological schoolyards." She then used this gift of research time to further the efforts of the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance as an advisor and later as the director of their first two Green Schoolyard conferences. In 2001, Sharon founded her own consulting practice to help schools initiate and design green schoolyard projects. In 2007, she joined forces with fellow LAEP alum Lisa Howard and their colleague Arden Bucklin-Sporer to found a new planning and landscape architecture firm called Bay Tree Design, Inc. Publications
Links
Keywords schoolyard gardens, environmental planning
MLA Three-Year First Professional Degree, 2004 Education
Background Prior to attending Berkeley, Crystal Gaudio coordinated programs at an English language school affiliated with UCLA Extension. LAEP Experience While at Berkeley Crystal was a graduate student instructor for Chip Sullivan and Joe Slusky's ENV DES 1 drawing studio and for Judith Stilgenbauer's LD ARCH 101 introduction to landscape architecture studio. The experience of giving constant desk crits and structuring arguments for good design has been invaluable professionally. The opportunity to travel with classmates during summer and spring breaks to Scandinavia, France, and Germany to study public and post-industrial landscapes has continued to provide invaluable insight for design ideas. Peter Bosselmann's urban design studio helped her better understand how differently architects, urban planners, and landscape architects think. Professional Life After LAEP Crystal is currently working at the Prospect Park Alliance in Brooklyn, New York, on a complex project integrating a new ice skating rink and visitor center into a historic reconstruction site. Before moving to New York, she worked for 2-1/2 years at CMG in San Francisco on projects ranging from a master plan for Treasure Island to construction documents for a Google preschool. She also taught a landscape architecture studio at UC Davis. Keywords public parks, academia/teaching
MLA Two-Year Second Professional Degree, 2004 Education
Background Prior to attending Berkeley John Gibbs worked in private practice for 3 years on a range of projects, gaining valuable experience and his California LA license. However, he felt the a need to broaden his skills and intellectual understanding of design. LAEP Experience John’s concentration was in urban design, with classes in city planning, urban design, and architecture. His thesis studio was a landscape exercise with Peter Walker. His prior degree in landscape architecture and professional experience gave him the flexibility to pursue multiple educational and teaching opportunities, including serving as a graduate student instructor for an advanced urban design studio. His most memorable experience was an urban design session in Provence, France, when he and student colleagues from all over the world engaged in an urban design session in a stunning landscape of medieval rues and lavender. Professional Life After LAEP Upon graduation, John joined the San Francisco office of Wallace Roberts & Todd to lead a series of public landscape design and planning projects, including a large scale brownfield redevelopment and a bridge design. Keywords urban design, brownfield redevelopment
MLA/EP, 2005 Education
Background Prior to attending Berkeley, Rosey Jencks was employed as a program associate at Moore, Iacofano and Goltsman (MIG), focusing on management and planning consultation. She then was hired as Program Director with the Neighborhood Parks Council, working with nonprofits that advocated for improved parks and open space planning. She then went on to work as Program Coordinator for the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR). She was also a consultant to the SF Recreation and Park Department and the SF Department of Public Works. LAEP Experience While in the MLA/EP program Rosey focused on planning and urban stormwater management. Her research culminated in a thesis, Finding Room for Stormwater—A Review of Site and Design Opportunities in San Francisco. She was also a recipient of the Scott Traveling Fellowship. Professional Life After LAEP Currently Rosey is the Urban Watershed and Stormwater Planner for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Links Keywords stormwater, environmental planning
MLA Three-Year First Professional Degree, 1998 Education
Background Before entering the master's program Sarah Kuehl worked as an assistant to a public artist, taught photography, and worked as a gardener in Tuscany. Her interest in landscape architecture arouse from these experiences and from her undergraduate thesis on graffiti writers and private property. LAEP Experience Walter Hood's studio influenced Sarah to seek design solutions that are simultaneously beautiful, buildable, and critical. To further her design understandings from Hood’s studio, Sarah pursued a design thesis on an urban nature park in Los Angeles. Professional Life After LAEP Since graduation Sarah has worked for Peter Walker and Partners (PWP), where she is now a partner. At PWP she has worked on a broad range of planning and design projects for universities, private residences, and museums. Keywords campus design, residential design, museum design
MLA Three-Year First Professional Degree, 2004 Education
Background Before coming to UC Berkeley, Caitilin Pope-Daum worked on organic farms and did landscape maintenance. LAEP Experience Caitlin’s desire to be both a designer and environmentalist led her to take as many environmental science classes as possible while also focusing on design studios. Professional Life After LAEP After graduating Caitilin worked for six months in a local Berkeley firm and then left to travel for three months on the Scott Traveling Fellowship. With the support of the Scott, she investigated the relationships between the natural landscape, regional identity, and a sense of place in the cultural landscape. This travel opportunity provided her the building blocks to applying landscape architecture to the broader context of people + culture + environment. Upon returning she and several Harvard Graduate School of Design planning graduates took a three-month position as part of a land use consulting team on the remote South Atlantic island of St. Helena. Since St. Helena, she has been living in Portland, Oregon, and working for the landscape architecture firm Walker Macy. Keywords cultural landscape
MLA Three-Year First Professional Degree, 2004 Education
Background Prior to attending Berkeley Lauri Twitchell taught printmaking, 2D design, and new media as a full-time professor at the Maine College of Art. LAEP Experience While in the MLA program Lauri chose to take a broad range of courses in landscape architecture and architecture. Working with Walter Hood and Randy Hester inspired her to merge the role of community participation with her fascination with gardens as a creative art form. Professional Life After LAEP To pursue these interests upon graduation, Lauri took a position at the UC Botanical Garden Education Department where she worked with 20 underserved schools in the East Bay designing buildings and maintaining school gardens. In June 2007, she was hired to be the new garden manager at Blake Garden. Blake Garden is an eleven-acre estate garden that was given to LAEP to be used as an ongoing landscape laboratory for landscape architecture students and the public. Links Keywords gardens and gardening, public participation
MLA Three-Year First Professional Degree, 2007 Education
Background Prior to attending Berkeley, Sutter worked as a floral/event designer in Philadelphia and a theater manager in Los Angeles. His experience in the theater and event design helped shape the way he saw designed landscapes as acts of contemporary theater where the audience is no longer disconnected from the stage. Sutter believes that we are all participants in the built environment - socially, ecologically, temporally. LAEP Experience Studio work and design/build opportunities shaped Sutter’s time at LAEP. During a course with Clare Cooper Marcus on healing gardens, Sutter designed a healing garden for a hospice unit in a California State penitentiary, which he considered to be an amazing opportunity and challenge. Additionally, Cheryl Barton's "Green on Brown" studio provided Sutter with an essential introduction to the challenges of working on contaminated urban sites, which directly shaped his future work. Sutter also took part in the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show in 2008, which he considered invaluable because of the important lessons in construction he learned in the process. Professional Life After LAEP After graduation, Sutter moved to Philadelphia where he currently works for Andropogen Associates, focusing on urban brownfield projects, as well as large master plans for academic institutions and cities. Sutter has gained a working knowledge of LEED, Living Building Challenge, and the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) and has spoken at multiple conferences about his role in a project that is seeking to achieve all three certifications. Sutter additionally continues to seek out small residential and volunteer projects outside of work as a way to stay involved in his community and to test out new construction techniques. Links
Keywords brownfield redevelopment, design/build |
Eran Ben Joseph
Anita Bueno
Allegra Bukojemsky, RLA, ASLA LEED AP
Sharon Danks
Crystal Gaudio
John Gibbs
Rosey Jencks
Sarah Kuehl
Caitilin Pope-Daum
Lauri Twitchell
Sutter Wehmeier