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191:, poverty, and women's issues. In addition, Orff learned about architecture school and enrolled in Reuben Rainey's class who is a well-known teacher of landscape architecture history at the school. During his class, Orff realized that landscape architecture was a combination of many things that she was passionate about; it integrated her interests in science and politics as well as her talent in art and design. While at the University of Virginia, Orff played varsity lacrosse and also coached a high-school girlsâ team. She then graduated with Distinction from the Bachelor of Political and Social Thought. Before returning to school in a Master in Landscape Architecture program from the Graduate School of Design at
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wave action. Orff's studio, SCAPE, which she established in 2007, is well known for its ecologically driven projects throughout the world and takes on many projects that emphasize sustainability due to her feelings of responsibility for the environment. In her studio, Orff and her team produce a design that is based on science and research as well as an activist approach.
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selected to join an interdisciplinary team for Mayor
Bloomberg's Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR). SCAPE's role in the harbor-wide study was to integrate natural systems as risk-reduction infrastructure, and layering strategies for enhanced coastal protection and ecosystem health. The project was awarded an ASLA-NY honor award in 2014.
183:. The program offered Orff freedom in choosing the path that she wanted to take within her studies. This led to her looking at women's studies, environmental sciences, sculpture, forest ecology which intertwined the arts and science in the University of Virginia curriculum. It was during this time in her early studies that Orff wrote her thesis on
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in 2012. SCAPE's winning project was a play off of Oyster-tecture called "Living
Breakwaters" and was meant to reduce erosion on the shoreline of Brooklyn, New York. Living Breakwaters serves as an environmentally-friendly, natural oyster reef that should be able to "clean up to millions of liters
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To redirect the attention to the planet's ecological systems as well as link them to policy ideas and infrastructure, Orff constructs a framework of engagement for her designs to create a resilient landscape that can handle future threats of the environment in the future sea-level rise and increase
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Orff and her firm, SCAPE, have developed a design called "Oyster-tecture," which serves as ecological infrastructure to filter polluted water and mitigate the effects of storm surge and sea-level rise through the construction of oyster reefs. Following
Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Orff and SCAPE were
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Orff's passion for the role that landscape architecture takes in cities has led her to the belief that landscape architects must do more than "beautify"; instead, they must assist in resetting the ecosystems to reconnect people to each other through social spaces that also implement ecological
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Orff was one of presenters at the
Landscape Architecture Foundation's The New Landscape Declaration: A Summit on Landscape Architecture and the Future held in Philadelphia on June 10â11, 2016. This summit brought together the leading minds in the field of landscape architecture to create a
254:'s ninth annual Rhode Island Energy, Environment and Oceans Leaders Day, held at the Rhode Island Convention Center. The event was attended by approximately 200 attendees from federal and state agencies, municipalities, environmental groups, and the energy industry.
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services. She states that, since the formation of the discipline, landscape architects had been working closely with the carbon-centric world; people have been creating wonderful gardens as a focus for the field but has been letting the Earth decay in the back-drop.
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and fostering social life which she has explored through publications, activism, research, and projects. She is known for leading complex, creative, and collaborative work processes that advance broad environmental and social prerogatives.
164:, to which she has been designed for the use of cars and created on the steadfast idea that oil was what kept modern settlements relevant. During Orff's summers of high school, she worked an odd string of jobs; for one summer, she as a
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She has designed projects across the United States and internationally. She lectures widely in the U.S. and abroad on the topic of urban landscape and new paradigms of thinking, collaborating and designing for the
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146:, where she is founder and co-director of the Urban Landscape Lab. According to the Urban Landscape Lab biographical information her office, SCAPE, has won local and national design awards. She was named a
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magazine in 2011 as one of nine women involved as "fixers" for mankind for her concept of "oyster-tecture", i.e. building reef-like structures with oysters to clean the water at New York City's waterfront.
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As a landscape architect, Orff is accredited in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, South
Carolina, Minnesota, and Arkansas. She is also CLARB Certified.
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In 2004, Orff moved to New York and started her practice out of her studio apartment near Union Square. She started taking on employees in 2007 and thus formally established her firm, SCAPE.
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in 2014, the ACEC NY Engineering
Excellence Award in 2015, and the National Achievement Award also in 2015. According to the SCAPE website, the project was due for construction in 2019.
93:. She is the founding principal of SCAPE, a design-driven landscape architecture and urban design studio based in New York. She is also the director the Urban Design Program (MSAUD) at
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declaration on how we need to move forward in a challenging future. The subsequent book that followed this summit published an essay by Orff entitled âUrban
Ecology as Activism.â
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Graduate School of
Architecture, Planning and Preservation and co-director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes. Orff is the first landscape architect to receive a
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243:. Orff received the grant for her designs of "adaptive and resilient habitats" and for encouraging stewardship of the ecological systems that underlie the
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published
Petrochemical America, a book by Orff which won the National ALSA award in the communications category in 2013. Petrochemical America featured
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In 2014, SCAPE was recognized as the winner of the
Rebuild By Design competition in order to preserve communities after
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of harbor water each day." Living Breakwaters has won not only the Rebuild by Design competition, but also the
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172:. It was at the plant nursery that she learned about plants and began to enjoy the activity of gardening.
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In 2019, Orff was elevated to the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Council of Fellows.
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photography of the industrialized Mississippi River and visual narratives by Orff and SCAPE.
466:"For the first time, MacArthur Foundation has given 'genius' award to a landscape architect"
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129:. Orff also teaches interdisciplinary seminars and design studios at Columbia University.
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773:"Kate Orff receives an honorary doctorate during the 182nd Dies Natalis & Delta week"
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Orff, Kate, and Claire Martin. 2015. âKate OrffâŻ: Translating Research into Action.â
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318:"Gateways: Visions for an Urban National Park" (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011)
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in the undergraduate program of Political and Social Thought, which was founded by
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518:"For Landscape Architect Kate Orff, Sunday Morning Means Having to Say 'Sorry!'"
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690:"Senator Whitehouse's annual climate event details the paucity of our response"
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Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
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Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation faculty
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magazine âDesign Leaderâ and H&G's 50 For the Future of Design.
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Orff, Kate. 2020. âWhat Is Design Now?: Unmaking the Landscape.â
195:, Off traveled to Chile and worked on a women's health magazine.
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In January 2024, Orff received an honorary doctorate from the
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In 2017, Orff was the recipient of a "Genius Grant" from the
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In 2018, Orff was a keynote speaker at United States Sen.
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The Landscape Architect Podcast. Retrieved April 29, 2020
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Brash, Alexander; Hand, Jamie; Orff, Kate, eds. (2011).
125:, the Architectural League NY, Aperture Foundation, and
606:"Landscape architects shift emphasis to the ecosystem"
747:"Kate Orff on Adaptive and Resilient Urban Habitats"
160:Orff grew up in a once-gated suburban community in
142:She is the director of the Urban Design Program at
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312:"Toward an Urban Ecology" (Monacelli Press, 2016)
104:Orff's work focuses on retooling the practice of
591:. MacArthur Foundation. Retrieved April 29, 2020
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829:Rehak, Melanie. 2012. âWhat Kate Orff Sees.â
241:John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
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333:. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
331:Gateway: Visions for an Urban National Park
293:Gateway, Visions for an Urban National Park
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862:Harvard Graduate School of Design alumni
720:American Society of Landscape Architects
315:"Petrochemical America" (Aperture, 2012)
16:American landscape architect (born 1971)
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187:in which she found connections between
796:External links and additional readings
604:Roth, Katherine (February 19, 2020).
348:Misrach, Richard; Orff, Kate (2012).
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516:Margolies, Jane (November 6, 2015).
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271:for her contributions in the field.
260:Also in 2019, Orff was honored as a
887:21st-century American women artists
530:from the original on March 22, 2019
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688:Ahlquist, Steve (July 21, 2018).
669:from the original on June 4, 2023
636:Landscape Architecture Foundation
371:. New York: The Monacelli Press.
352:. New York: Aperture Foundation.
852:21st-century American architects
817:Landscape Architecture Australia
831:Landscape Architecture Magazine
572:. SCAPE. Retrieved May 1, 2020
269:Delft University of Technology
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867:American landscape architects
777:Technische Universiteit Delft
491:"Inspirational Women of 2011"
819:, no. 145 (February): 52â56.
230:Buckminster Fuller Challenge
168:and another she worked at a
121:Era. Orff is also listed on
632:"Urban Ecology as Activism"
295:by Kate Orff. In 2012, the
108:relative to uncertainty of
89:(born 1971) is an American
46:1971 (age 52–53)
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872:Women landscape architects
857:American women architects
189:environmental degradation
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630:Orff, Kate (July 2016).
156:Early life and education
132:She was listed first by
715:"2019 Fellows Profiles"
369:Toward an Urban Ecology
264:'s Hero of the Harbor.
177:University of Virginia
106:landscape architecture
59:University of Virginia
350:Petrochemical America
95:Columbia University's
824:Architectural Design
662:MacArthur Foundation
405:MacArthur Foundation
289:Princeton University
99:MacArthur Fellowship
751:Waterfront Alliance
470:The Washington Post
367:Orff, Kate (2016).
297:Aperture Foundation
262:Waterfront Alliance
91:landscape architect
79:Landscape architect
779:. January 12, 2024
727:on October 1, 2020
523:The New York Times
252:Sheldon Whitehouse
193:Harvard University
175:Orff attended the
68:Harvard University
892:MacArthur Fellows
753:. August 16, 2019
301:Richard Misrach's
245:built environment
199:Design philosophy
162:Crofton, Maryland
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37:Orff in 2015
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847:1971 births
783:January 26,
657:"Kate Orff"
437:"Kate Orff"
401:"Kate Orff"
283:Major works
275:Credentials
185:ecofeminism
841:Categories
387:References
291:published
166:fishmonger
75:Occupation
802:Kate Orff
694:Uprise RI
615:April 29,
588:Kate Orff
569:Kate Orff
554:Kate Orff
534:March 22,
446:March 11,
410:March 22,
287:In 2011,
123:TED talks
87:Kate Orff
51:Education
25:Kate Orff
757:March 7,
731:April 6,
699:March 7,
673:April 6,
667:Archived
641:March 7,
528:Archived
475:March 7,
806:Twitter
610:AP News
375:
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212:Career
70:, 1997
64:M.L.A.
61:, 1993
441:SCAPE
149:Dwell
785:2024
759:2020
733:2024
701:2020
675:2024
643:2020
617:2020
536:2019
503:2024
495:ELLE
477:2020
448:2020
412:2019
373:ISBN
354:ISBN
335:ISBN
135:Elle
127:WNYC
55:B.A.
43:Born
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
