Architect of the Day

Since no one was interested in Building of the Day we will try something different. No Pictures here, unless you can find some. Who is Laurie D. Olin? I bet this one stumps Renots. __________________ Practice Professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at Upenn B.Arch., University of Washington. Former Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard and a founding partner of Hanna/Olin Ltd. (the Olin Partnership since 1996). Projects have included urban redevelopment schemes and urban park design and restoration in Europe and America. Major projects include restoration of Bryant Park and the Battery Park City Esplanade in New York. Numerous works for institutions, such as the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, and the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Residential work has ranged from public housing in Germany to private estates in the US. A John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, an American Academy in Rome Fellow, an honorary member of The American Institute of Architects, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Currently a trustee of the American Academy in Rome. __________________ What is he your brother? Here is a bit more for those intrested: Laurie D. Olin grew up in the diverse landscapes of the Pacific Northwest: Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington State. He received a degree in architecture from the University of Washington in Seattle where he was a student of Richard Haag. He has worked in architectural and landscape offices in Seattle, New York, and London, as well as on transportation and urban design with Joseph Passonneau and Partners, Washington, DC. Since founding Hanna/Olin (now The Olin Partnership), Olin has been engaged in landscape design and planning consultation to internationally renowned design firms such as Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, Eisenman Architects, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Frank O. Gehry, Hardy Holzman & Pfeiffer, Davis Brody, Terry Farrell, and Foster Associates. He has worked on a diverse list of projects: corporate headquarters for Johnson & Johnson, Pitney Bowes, and Codex Corporation; urban parks including Bryant Park and Battery Park City in New York, Pershing Square in Los Angeles, and Hermann Park in Houston; mixed-use developments including Playa Vista in Los Angeles, Mission Bay in San Francisco, and Vila Olimpica in Barcelona; social housing in Frankfurt, Germany and major commercial projects at Canary Wharf, Bishopsgate, and Kings Cross in London, England; campus planning and design at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, University of Virginia, University of Washington, and the University of Cincinnati; as well as private estates and residential gardens in Ohio, Georgia, Florida, New York, and California. Recent projects have included gardens for The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and the Getty Center in Los Angeles. From 1974 to 1982, Olin was a member of the Faculty of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. From 1982 to 1986, he was the chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He is currently Practice Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Graduate School of Fine Arts at the University of Pennsylvania and also a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome. For his work in landscape architecture, Olin has received fellowships from both the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy in Rome. He published a study of Seattle¡¯s Skid Row Community in 1972, has written frequently on the history and theory of landscape architecture for various journals, for which he won the Bradford Williams Medal in 1991. Transformation of the Common/Place appeared in 1996 and Across The Open Field, Essays Drawn On The English Landscape in 1999. He is an Honorary Member of the American Institute of Architects, and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and The National Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1998, Olin was awarded The American Academy of Arts and Letters award in Architecture. Oh and a picture: