Kate Orff is the founding principal of SCAPE. Through her creative leadership of the firm, she explores the cultural and physical complexity of urban landscapes and their unique textures, ecologies, programs and publics. She is a registered landscape architect and an Assistant Professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, leading studios that integrate the earth sciences into the design curriculum. After graduating from the University of Virginia with Distinction, Kate earned a Master in Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard.
She has worked on projects for many prominent academic institutions and private clients that have been published nationally and internationally. She trained for several years with the landscape architecture and planning firm Hargreaves Associates and with the Dutch architect / urbanist Rem Koolhaas at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, before starting her own practice. Kate has received several design awards and lectured widely in the U.S. and abroad on the topic of urban landscape and sustainability.
Professional Registration
Landscape Architect, New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, South Carolina
CLARB Certified
Academic
Assistant Professor, Columbia University GSAPP
Director, Urban Landscape Lab, Columbia University GSAPP
Service
Board Member, Architectural League of New York
AIA Steering Committee 2007
Member, Design Advisory Group, New Yorkers for Parks (NY4P) 2004-2005
Design Fellow, New York City Audubon Society 2005-2006