During World Landscape Architecture Month 2018, Toole Design Group will be featuring the themes, projects, and staff that form our Landscape Architecture and Urban Design practice. Tune in to our Instagram and Twitter channels for daily updates, features, and more throughout April!
I initially thought to become an architect, but after starting school I turned toward landscape architecture because of its environmental focus and strong connection with the public realm. After a string of internship experiences ranging from corridor planning and conceptual parking lot redesign to illustration of smart growth guidelines focused on streets, I recognized transportation as one of my biggest design interests.
Access and mobility were themes that were strongly present in my previous work on historic parks, plaza and playground design, and trails, and I wanted to expand the depth of my planning and construction knowledge on these topics. I’m happy to have joined Toole Design Group, a company where I can dive deeper into landscape infrastructure as it supports a movement-focused world for all people.
I like working on projects that serve multiple user groups and want my work to foster people’s security – to make life easier and healthier – while reducing humanity’s negative impacts on the earth. At Toole Design, we work to achieve those things by highlighting transportation equity in our projects and by supporting mobility options other than personal motor vehicles. Where car-focused infrastructure has a history of dividing neighborhoods and creating negative health incomes, active transportation infrastructure works within a smaller footprint, reduces pollution, and increases connectivity for people in all communities. By designing and implementing complete streets that incorporate green infrastructure, we are making streets safer, more pleasant, and more ecologically sound.
Each day I’m happy to be running, biking, or taking the train toward a workplace full of passionate and thoughtful people who are working for others. Our work makes it possible for users of varying abilities, racial and ethnic identity, and socioeconomic status to access jobs, see family, or just to get some exercise and explore their communities. For me, that’s work worth doing.
