Team

Kate Orff

RLA, FASLA
Founding Principal, Partner
Gena Wirth

FASLA, RLA
Design Principal, Partner
Alexis C. Landes

Managing Principal, Partner
John Donnelly

RLA
Technical Principal, Partner
Pippa Brashear

RLA, WEDG
Resilience Principal, Partner
Brad Howe

RLA
Principal
Chris Barnes

RLA
Principal
Martin Harwood

RLA, ISA, LEED AP
Principal
Laura Marett

RLA, LEED AP
Principal
Nans Voron

WEDG
Principal
Grace Dials

RLA
Director of Design Management
Kate Hayes

RLA
Studio Director, San Francisco
Amanda Huhn

Director of Marketing
Kaleen Juarez

RLA, WEDG
Director
Will Klassen

Chief of Staff
Jennifer Schecter

Director of Business Development
Despo Thoma

AICP
Director of Resilience
Rosy Thakur

Director of Finance
William Tietje

RLA, WEDG
Technical Director
Sylvia Barnett

RLA
Senior Associate
Meghann Dubie

Senior Operations Manager
Tal Fuerst

WEDG
Senior Associate
Vincent Di Fusco

RLA, CCM

Senior Technical Lead
Scott Goodrich

RLA
Senior Technical Lead
Zi Gu

RLA, ASLA
Senior Associate
Daniel Hernandez

RLA
Senior Associate
Julia Howe

RLA
Senior Associate
Kal O’Leary

Senior Associate
Todd Mead

RLA, LEED AP
Senior Technical Lead
Arthur Pérez

Senior Associate
Linh Kim Pham

RLA
Senior Associate
Grace Prem

RLA, WEDG
Senior Associate
John Rabago

RLA
Senior Associate
Greta Ruedisueli

RLA
Senior Associate
Shuang Shuang Wu

RLA
Senior Associate
Jessica Arias

RLA, WEDG
Associate
Danny Berdichevsky

RLA
Associate
Graham Davidson

Office & HR Manager

Alyson Demskie

Associate

Hana Estice

Communications Manager
Rikerrious Geter

LEED GA
Associate
Kirk Gordon

RLA

Associate
Shira Grosman

RLA, WEDG
Associate
Aaron King

RLA, LEED GA
Associate
Nathalie Mitchell

Associate

Gabrielle Rashleigh

Associate

Danny Rose

RLA
Associate
Lena Smart

Associate

Ciara Stein

Associate

Lindsey White

Associate

Andrew Wright

RLA
Associate
Natalie Boverman

Senior Designer

Molly Davis

RLA, WEDG
Senior Designer
Caroline Fitzpatrick

Senior Designer

Miles Hamaker

Senior Designer

Xueyang Huang

WEDG
Senior Designer
Grace Suthata Jiranuntarat

WEDG
Senior Designer
Joanne Li

RLA, WEDG
Senior Designer
Quanjiang Li

Senior Designer

Bom Phituksithkasem

Senior Designer
Peixuan Wu

RLA, WEDG
Senior Designer
Rodrigo Yárritu

Senior Designer

Kelly Zhan

WEDG
Senior Designer
Chadwick Bowlin

Designer

Jonathan Boyce

WEDG
Designer
Olivia Canady

Studio Assistant, New York

Kai Davis

Studio Assistant, New Orleans

Max Eckhardt

RLA
Designer
Caz Gagné

Designer

Candelaria Gassiebayle

WEDG
Designer
Kate Gliniak

Designer

Yuehui Gong

Designer

Nick Gray

Designer

Jessy Rojas Güere

WEDG
Designer
Vaibhav Gurung

Designer
Robert L. Joseph

Design Coordinator

Abigail MacPhee

Designer

Margaret Marando

LEED GA

Designer

Miriam Hernandez Medina

Designer
Raka Mukherjee

Studio & Accounting Assistant, San Francisco

Olivia Reichert

Designer

Jade Rhodes

Designer

Erin Sheehy

Marketing Coordinator

Isabella Simões

Designer

Jenna Wu

RLA, WEDG
Designer
Yuqing Zhang

LEED GA
Designer

Kate Orff

RLA, FASLA
Founding Principal, Partner

Kate practices architecture to address global challenges of climate change and social and environmental justice.

Kate Orff, RLA, FASLA, is the Founder of SCAPE. She has dedicated her career to redefining landscape architecture as a means to address today’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. Through interdisciplinary practice that weaves together design, research, and advocacy, she has advanced new approaches to climate adaptation while creating acclaimed built work that strengthens communities, restores ecological systems, and cultivates civic life. Kate’s work ranges widely in scale and typology, spanning waterfronts, parks, campuses, urban districts, and regional plans demonstrating the value of landscape architecture as essential infrastructure.

Widely recognized as a leading global voice in landscape architecture, urban design, and climate adaptation, Kate has helped shape the profession through both practice and thought leadership. Her work bridges ecology, infrastructure, policy, and public engagement, bringing together diverse collaborators and community members to realize ambitious projects that respond to the complexity and uncertainty of climate change.

This leadership extends through books, essays, and public scholarship. Kate is the author of Toward an Urban Ecology (Monacelli, 2016); Petrochemical America (Aperture, 2012), co-authored with photographer Richard Misrach; as well as a contributor to All We Can Save (Penguin Random House, 2020), a bestselling anthology of essays by women climate leaders; and What If We Get It Right? (Penguin Random House, 2024), both edited by Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson. Her work has been profiled extensively in publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, and National Geographic, CNN, and beyond.

Kate earned a Bachelor's in Political and Social Thought with Distinction from the University of Virginia and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She is a Professor at Columbia University, and served as Director of GSAPP’s Urban Design Program from 2015 to 2026. She also serves on the Commission on Accelerating Climate Action for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and on the Advisory Board for Urban Ocean Lab.

Among her many honors, Kate became the first landscape architect to receive the MacArthur Foundation's prestigious "genius" grant in 2017. She was elevated to the ASLA Council of Fellows and received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in Landscape Architecture in 2019, followed by The Architect's Newspaper's Urbanist of the Year award in 2020. In 2023, she was named to the TIME100, an annual list of the world's most influential people. 

Read Jeanne Gang’s tribute to Kate in the TIME 100.

Read Eric Klinenberg’s profile of Kate and SCAPE in The New Yorker.

Watch Kate’s interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on the value of natural infrastructure.

Credentials

Landscape Architect: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, South Carolina, Minnesota, Arkansas, Virginia, Indiana

CLARB Certified

Accomplishments

Academic

Director, Master of Architecture and Urban Design Program, 

Columbia University GSAPP

Co-Director, Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes (CRCL), 

Columbia University GSAPP

Professor
Columbia University GSAPP

Distinction

MacArthur Fellow, 2017
USA Artist Fellow, 2012
American Academy of Arts and Letters
Award in Architecture, 2015
Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture, 2024

Board & Advisory Roles

Advisor, Urban Ocean Lab

Member, Commission on Accelerating Climate Action, 
American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Contributor, Committee on Infrastructure, Climate & Sustainability
NYC Mayoral Transition Team for Eric Adams

Additional honors include:

Urbanist of the Year
The Architect’s Newspaper, 2020

ASLA Council of Fellows, 2019

National Design Award
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, 2019

Waterfront Alliance
Hero of the Harbor, 2019

ASLA Professional Awards, Honor Award – Communications
Toward An Urban Ecology, 2017

Buckminster Fuller Challenge Winner 2014

Rebuild by Design, Winning Team
Living Breakwaters, 2014

“Most Creative People”
Fast Company, 2014

National Academician 2013

“Emerging Voice”
Architectural League of New York, 2012

Team Leader
MoMA “Rising Currents” Exhibit, 2010

Publications

“Toward an Urban Ecology”
(Monacelli Press, 2016)

“Petrochemical America”
(Aperture, 2012)

“Gateways: Visions for an Urban National Park”
(Princeton Architectural Press, 2011)