Laura Solano, FASLA
“The best thing about being a landscape architect is the ability to create something that affects the daily lives of people. When people visit projects designed by a landscape architect, they don’t necessarily know they are in a highly considered and constructed space, but they do sense that they are someplace that momentarily lets them turn their attention towards the natural world.” ‑ ASLA Emerging Professionals Ask Me Anything Event
Laura Solano, FASLA, is a registered Landscape Architect and Partner at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. (MVVA). She is one of the managing Partners in MVVA’s Cambridge office and has been involved in many of the firm’s best known and award-winning projects in North America, including Teardrop Park, Alumnae Valley at Wellesley College, the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the Restoration of Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, and the United States Embassy in Mexico City. Currently, she is working on the Port Lands in Toronto, Ontario, a flood protection infrastructure project that will transform a former industrial waterfront into vibrant riverine and upland landscapes. Solano is a nationally recognized expert in landscape technology and leads MVVA’s technological innovations, which have been essential for advancing the firm’s design excellence alongside sustainable and resilient performance. For over 25 years she taught at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and was appointed the Trott Distinguished Visiting Professor at The Ohio State University, her alma mater. In 2020 she was inducted as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. As part of her professional advocacy, Laura lectures nationwide at universities and professional associations on the potential for creative overlap between landscape design, technology, and science. Her writings on these topics have been widely published and her expertise contributed to the soil section of the ASLA SITES initiative. She currently serves as a Lead Facilitator for the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Fellowship for Innovation and Leadership.
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