Since the mid-1980s I’ve been interested in theory and practice that seeks to reconcile the pervasive dichotomies of nature-culture, site-region, past-present, art-science, and scholarship-practice. I’m intrigued by ideas and approaches that promote convivial, sustainable and adaptive places. This led me to work as a consultant, initially for three years with a large multi-disciplinary A/E firm, and then for five years with the Toronto-based firm of Hough Stansbury Woodland Associates.

My appointment at Penn State in 1993 allowed me to focus on several interrelated themes that seemed underdeveloped in the profession: the links between design and the synthetic ecologies, ecological restoration at the urban regional scale, regeneration of degraded urban landscapes and rivers, spearheaded by empowered communities. These efforts to interweave design and ecology have taken place in three main venues at Penn State: my home program in landscape architecture, the Center for Watershed Stewardship, and the graduate program in ecology.