Julia Czerniak is Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University where she teaches studios and seminars on architectural design and landscape theory and criticism. She served as Associate Dean from 2014-2022. She is educated both as an architect and a landscape architect and her research and practice draw on the intersection of these disciplines. Her most recent design research explores the relationship of design to biodiversity, advancing landscape as a protagonist in remaking and envisioning the complex relationships among animal species. Czerniak’s work as a designer is complemented by her work as an educator and writer. Her publications include the books: Case: Downsview Park Toronto (1999); Large Parks (2007); and Formerly Urban: Projecting Rust Belt Futures (2013). 

Sonja Dümpelmann co-directs the Rachel Carson Center at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich where she is professor and chair in environmental humanities. She was previously a professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Dümpelmann is a historian of urban landscapes and environments in the 19th and 20th centuries. Her most recent monographs are Landscapes for Sport: Histories of Physical Exercise, Sport, and Health (ed., Washington DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 2022), and the award-winning Seeing Trees: A History of Street Trees in New York City and Berlin (Yale University Press, 2019).

Photo by Eric Sucar.

Catherine Mosbach is a landscape architect and founder of Paris-based design firm mosbach paysagistes and the magazine Pages Paysages. Catherine’s key projects include the Solutre Archaeological Park in Saone-et-Loire, Walk Sluice of Saint-Denis, the Botanical Garden of Bordeaux, the other side in Quebec City, Shan Shui at the International Horticultural Exposition in Xian, Lost in Transition Taehwa River Garden Show in Ulsan. She was the recipient of the Equerre D’argent award with Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa for the Louvre Lens Museum Park and was honored in the Iconic Concept Award category by the German Design Council and Platine Award by INT.design 15th Montreal for Phase Shifts Park in Taichung. The team was honored with Firm of the Year 2021 in Landscape and Urban Design by Architecture Master Prize Los Angeles.  Catherine was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour by French President Francois Hollande in 2016. Her work, In the net of desires was featured in XXI Triennale de Milano 2017. Catherine is currently visiting professor at Harvard GSD.

Signe Nielsen is principal of MNLA (Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects) in New York and has been practicing as a landscape architect and urban designer since 1978. Her body of work has renewed the environmental integrity and transformed the quality of spaces for those who live, work, and play in the urban realm. Signe believes in using design as a vehicle for advocacy to promote discourse on social equity and community resilience and has served on multiple panels to effect positive change. A Fellow of the ASLA, she is the recipient of over 100 national and local design awards for public open space projects and is published extensively in national and international publications. Signe is a Professor of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture at Pratt Institute and former President for the Public Design Commission of the City of New York. Born in Paris, Signe holds degrees in Urban Planning from Smith College; in Landscape Architecture from City College of New York; and in Construction Management from Pratt Institute. MNLA’s recent award-winning landscape architecture projects in New York City include Little Island, Waterline Square Park, Governors Island, the Rockefeller University Campus, the Whitney Museum, the Edible Academy at the New York Botanical Garden, and the landscape of the iconic TWA Terminal Hotel at JFK.

Marcel Wilson is founder and design director of Bionic based in San Francisco, California. He is an agile and inventive designer, and is distinguished as a creative force in complex landscape projects through his broad expertise in landscape technology which ranges from large-scale infrastructure systems to micro-scale material applications. His experience includes waterfronts, infrastructure, and coastal adaptation, high-rise construction, landscapes on structure, and post-industrial sites. Under his leadership Bionic has risen to the cutting edge of the profession through significant commissions for LinkedIn, Adobe, and Google. At the city scale he is leading the design of large parks, waterfronts, and new urban districts in multiple West Coast cities. The firm has won multiple international design competitions including Fort Mason Center Public Realm, the Adobe Creek Bridge in Palo Alto, and the Resilient By Design Bay Area Challenge. Marcel graduated with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he was awarded the prestigious Weidenman Prize for Design Excellence.