BSLA Fieldbook BSLA 2015 Spring Fieldbook | Page 9
at UMass and skipped happily through the
I finally gathered the intestinal fortitude to
next three years towards the completion
open the doors to my practice 16 years ago
of a BSLA degree. I am happy to say that I
this January. It was either bravery or the
was a member of the first BSLA graduating
lack of common sense to do otherwise. I am
class from UMass. Granted, there were some
also a great example of the old “had I known
epic battles along the way with the likes of
then what I know now” adage.
Joe Volpe, Julius Fabos, Mark Lindhult, but
they only steeled my resolve and
Other than the
I a m h a p py t o
strengthened my abilities and I
three years after
s ay t h a t I wa s a
am proud to call them all friends
school, I never had
today and owe them, and many
m e mb e r o f t h e f i r s t the experience of
others in that department, a debt
working in a larger
B S LA g ra d ua t i n g firm. I imagine there
of gratitude.
c l a s s f ro m UM a s s . I would have made
In the late 80’s and early 90’s there
my mistakes, and
was a recession, not of the magnitude we
been guided in the appropriate manner of
just experienced, but the job market was
LA life. Instead, I started from just above
bleak. I was grateful to be able to land a job
the ground floor. This path mandated that
with a Landscape Architecture and Land
I do everything associated with developing
Planning office in the Hartford area. After
a firm. I have been in the field doing soil
three years the recession claimed that
work, site analysis, surveying, in the office
position and I was forced to find ways to
doing design work, marketing, business
stay within my chosen field and still make a
management, client management, emptying
good living.
the garbage and doing the dishes... and I
wouldn’t have traded it for anything.
I turned to an arena that I had always been
able to fall back on; horticulture. I took a job
As I look back on our clients and body of
in a small but very well-known nursery in
work, I see the foundation of a firm that was
western Massachusetts, Windy Hill Farm
in its youth and is now maturing to a life of
(Michael Dirr has called this place the best
adulthood. As I embark on the next 16 years,
small nursery he has ever discovered) where
things are certainly different now than they
I honed my plant knowledge and plant use
were back then, and I look forward to our
skills (a skill that I believe should be more
continued growth and the new projects and
prevalent in LAs). This set a path towards
clients we have yet to meet.
establishing my own practice.
Started Out Lenox, MA
Education BSLA , UMass Amherst - the first graduating class in the program
Now Greylock Design Associates
Boston Society of Landscape Architects Fieldbook
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