Landscapes for a Living World

As we become more and more aware of the impact human activities can have on our world’s environment, landscape professionals have been increasingly inspired to create beautiful designs that also coexist well with their surrounding ecosystems. One result has been a growing use of native species in landscape design, plus gardens specifically made to attract and sustain birds, pollinating insects, and other local wildlife. In this panel, some of the Northeast’s most prominent professionals will examine the current state of the art and where they see things headed.
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Panelists:
* Matthew Cunningham, principal, Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design, Stoneham, Mass.
* Kathryn Herman, principal, Kathryn Herman Design, New Canaan, Conn.
* Keith LeBlanc, principal, LeBlanc Jones Landscape Architects, Boston
* Margie Ruddick, principal, Margie Ruddick Landscape, White Plains, N.Y., and author of Wild by Design: Strategies for Creating Life-Enhancing Landscapes

Moderator:
Kyle Hoepner, design journalist and consultant
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About the speakers:

As an energetic, prolific, hands-on professional, Matthew Cunningham derives great passion from his roots in the verdant, rocky coast of rural Maine. As founding principal of Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design, he leads, teaches, and advocates with conviction about the important role native plants play in supporting resilient site ecologies that will continue to thrive in the face of climate change. With studios located in Massachusetts and Maine, and more than 500 built works (so far) throughout New England, Matthew is leading a regional movement that reinforces the role residential landscape architects and designers play in shaping some of our most intimate human experiences.

Kathryn Herman’s strong horticultural background and intense interest in architecture, as well as extensive travels around the world, have informed her work on residential and commercial projects throughout the United States and abroad. Her designs have garnered honors from the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art—including the Arthur Ross Award for “preserving and advancing the classical tradition”—as well as recognition from the Connecticut and New York chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects. In 2012, Kathryn was elected to the New England Design Hall of Fame for her contributions to landscape design in the New England region. Her firm’s projects have been published frequently in the U.S. and internationally.

Keith LeBlanc is a nationally known landscape architect who has dedicated more than forty years to landscape design. His firm, LeBlanc Jones Landscape Architecture, was established in 1997 in Boston, and has gained recognition and awards from both the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Projects from his office have been honored with both peer and popular appreciation, including accolades from the Southern California chapter of the ASLA, the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, and the James Rose Center for Landscape Architectural Research and Design.

For over twenty years, Margie Ruddick has been recognized for her pioneering work in the landscape. Winner of the 2013 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in landscape architecture, Margie has forged a design language that integrates ecology and culture. Her transformative design for New York’s Queens Plaza has won awards for promoting a new idea of nature in the city, where stormwater, wind, sun, and habitat merge within an urban infrastructure to create a more sustainable vision of urban life. She has taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, Yale, Princeton, The University of Pennsylvania, Parsons School of Design, and Schumacher College in England. Her book Wild by Design: Strategies for Creating Life-Enhancing Landscapes was published by Island Press in 2016.

Moderator Kyle Hoepner is a freelance writer, speaker, photo stylist, and editorial strategist based in Boston. He has had a distinctly hands-on relationship with design and the world of publishing for more than three decades, including eleven years spent as editor-in-chief of New England Home, a luxury shelter title covering the northeastern corner of the U.S. More recently, Kyle has taken on projects for a variety of publications and other clients, including Architectural Digest’s AD PRO, ASPIRE Design and Home, the Raiz Project (a collective of Brazilian furniture designers), and Boston Design Week.