February 3, 2022 OLIN Partners Named Visiting Professors of Practice in Landscape Architecture

The School of Landscape Architecture welcomes OLIN partners, Jessica Henson and Trevor Lee, as Visiting Professors of Practice during spring 2022.

With offices in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, OLIN creates distinguished landscapes and urban designs worldwide. The firm’s work is predicated upon social engagement, craft, detail, materiality and timelessness.

OLIN’s celebrated projects include Bryant Park, Manhattan; Canary Wharf, London; Battery Park City, New York City; the J. Paul Getty Center, Los Angeles; and the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia. OLIN’s current work includes a comprehensive master plan for 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, the waterfront of downtown Alexandria, Virginia, and the competition-winning 11th Street Bridge Park in Washington, D.C.

Jessica Henson, RLA, ASLA, Partner, joined OLIN in 2010 and has contributed to numerous projects that seek to create socially and environmentally resilient infrastructures including a comprehensive update to the Los Angeles River Master Plan, one of the first design proposals for a large-scale wildlife crossing over a major U.S. interstate, and the landscape of the new U.S. Embassy in London. Henson’s research explores the relationships between hydrological, cultural and social contexts, as well as the design of equitable communities.

Henson earned a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Architecture degree with a minor in structural engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Trevor Lee, RLA, ASLA, Partner, has worked in professional practice and academia for almost 20 years. He specializes in creating immersive, embedded experiences by foregrounding cultural, technological and ecological frameworks within the landscape.  Lee has contributed to many of OLIN’s signature projects, including the LEED Platinum-certified forestry school at Yale University, Syracuse Connective Corridor and Pier 26 at Hudson River Park in Manhattan. Lee’s research focuses on new urbanity and new technologies in solar and wind science.

Lee joined OLIN in 2013 after practicing professionally since 2002. He earned a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from Rhode Island School of Design.

At UT, in Henson and Lee’s spring 2022 studio, our Landscape Architecture students are being exposed to the work at OLIN on territorial land management, an OLIN Labs initiative called @Scale. Through this, the studio is exploring the history of large-land planning and current perceptions with a focus on Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau. Students are considering how landscape architects can emphasize multi-benefit land management to support economic, climate and environmental benefits.

“Although ninety-seven percent of the American landscape exists outside cities and towns, most planning efforts and landscape architecture projects focus inwardly on these geographies,” said Henson.

Lee adds, “The scale of planning must match the scale of our impacts, something students are analyzing as they learn about land-use management and the ability to significantly impact climate and environmental goals.”

In addition to Henson and Lee, other OLIN associates engaged with our students in this studio include Andrew Dobshinsky, Claire Casstevens, Joanna Karaman and Sarah Swanseen.

Photo credits:

• OLIN
• Dawn Bowery (Henson’s photo)
• Sahar Coston-Hardy (Lee’s photo)