Immersed in the Landscape: OvS's Lisa Delplace on High Performance Design, Sustainable Firms, Being Fierce and Letting Go
By Julia Gamolina
In a career that spans four decades, Lisa Delplace has demonstrated extensive knowledge of ecological processes and a commitment to their artistic execution. Her diverse body of work reflects a compelling sculptural relationship between architecture and landscape. In addition to her leadership role, She is responsible for the planning, design, and execution of many of OvS’ notable commissions.
Lisa holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in Park Planning and Design from Michigan State University. Her international experience includes mission-critical facilities in the Middle East and service as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Kenya, East Africa. In her interview, Lisa talks about immersing herself in landscape in every sense of the word, and building sustainable companies, advising those just starting their careers to find colleagues and collaborators with whom to take on today’s challenges.
JG: Tell me about your foundational years — where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?
LD: I grew up in southeastern Michigan, which has an expansive and diverse landscape. My parents, like many in the 1960s, had moved into a subdivision, this one outside of Detroit. It was beautiful, featuring grassy verges planted with majestic American elms. But what was more interesting was that the subdivision backed up to untouched wetlands, peat bogs, and large fallow fields that had turned into meadows. That was my playground, the place where I spent most of my days exploring. It was this seasonal, ephemeral landscape that affected me because there was always something changing. The seasonality of the landscape became part of my DNA.
Later, I took up photography, sketching, and painting as a way of documenting the landscapes that I love. In the process, I began to observe how people engaged with and were immersed in the landscape. I joined the Peace Corps before getting my degree in landscape architecture, which further sharpened my awareness of the cultural, social, and environmental relationships between landscapes and the people who occupy the space.
Tippet Rise Art Center, Fishtail, MT. Tippet Rise Art Center is the confluence of art, music, and nature. Sculptor Patrick Dougherty wrapped willow withies into twisting, flowing ropes that he then wove over and through a replica of a frontier-era schoolhouse. The site is planted with aspens, prairie grasses, and forbs.
Chicago Botanic Garden, Gardens of the Great Basin. Glencoe, IL. The Chicago Botanic Garden’s ecologically functional Gardens of the Great Basin demonstrate what is possible when artistic expression and scientific understanding equally drive design. The result is a striking landscape that serves a multiplicity of needs: expanding display gardens, modeling sustainable soil practices, stabilizing the shoreline, accommodating regional storm-water management, and creating habitat.
What did you learn about yourself in studying landscape architecture?
To be fierce and then to let go. Design, any kind of design, is a creative process, so there is a bit of you in everything you create, yet you are also an advocate, giving voice to people and the landscape.
I entered graduate school slightly older than my peers and after having traveled the world. I understood that the ephemeral qualities of the landscape that drew me to the profession could also be their downfall. One sees this repeatedly with the destruction of wetlands and woodlands for development or woodlands or designed landscapes that are removed or changed due to lack of maintenance. I wanted to be the interpreter, the storyteller, and the champion for both people and the landscape.
How did you get your start in the field?
I was always keenly focused on the natural world but I wasn’t aware of landscape architecture until well into my undergraduate studies. After the Peace Corps, I decided to pursue landscape architecture full-time. It was the perfect outlet to mesh my knowledge of ecological processes with my love of artistry. This coupling results in high-performance designs that are immersed in science but maintain a strong sculptural relationship to culture, history, and the vernacular.
“...what’s on my mind right now is reclaiming the street...Increased use of rooftops, both as an amenity and as ecological enhancement is one of the greatest movements and has had a profound impact on sustainability. However, I don’t want to lose focus on the urban street – it is where most of us live and it needs to be humane.”
Tell me how your work evolved, and you with it.
When I decided to move to the East Coast in 1989, I wanted to learn more about urban design, but I was also highly focused on learning the craft and constructability of landscape projects. At the time, a nearly unheard-of small firm called Oehme, van Sweden & Associates was making big waves in the design community by creating exuberant, bold seasonal gardens in urban environments. This movement, dubbed the “New American Garden”, was a metaphor for an approach deeply rooted in the American landscape aesthetic. This firm was not only designing the landscapes but actually out in the field constructing them as well. I was hooked. It was my first job and, although I went on to work with other firms, it was OvS that I came back to.
I learned the distinct design language of OvS — and I mean that both in terms of the vocabulary of the design gestures but also in the vocabulary of the plants and plant communities. We continue to strive to explore each marker of the landscape and fuse art, science, and humanity to distill its form and amplify its function. The result is that no matter where we are designing or building, the landscapes are a contextually appropriate, high-performance composition that connects people to the land.
Where are you in your career today? What is on your mind most at the moment?
After twenty years as CEO, I have stepped down to devote more time to design. I love the challenges inherent in the design process and having more bandwidth to devote to those challenges is deeply fulfilling.
Interestingly, what’s on my mind right now is reclaiming the street. Over the span of my career, I’ve pushed to create ‘greener’ cities, whether that be vertically or horizontally: walls, roofs, and elevated gardens. I want them to be vibrant and as if they have been curated, but what of the street? Increased use of rooftops, both as an amenity and as ecological enhancement is one of the greatest movements and has had a profound impact on sustainability. However, I don’t want to lose focus on the urban street – it is where most of us live and it needs to be humane.
Westlight, Washington, DC.A mixed-use development in DC’s West End Neighborhood, the Westlight includes condominiums and a public library. Lisa aimed to reclaim the street by running the plantings right up to the building on the outside and supplying a green understory to this urban grove.
Westlight (Greenwall), Washington, DC. The transparent glass walls of the building allowed Lisa to blur the division between indoors and out. In the lobby of the residential area, an interior “living” wall creates a visual echo and seamless transition.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you manage through a disappointment or a perceived setback?
Challenges always result in innovation. It is far too easy in a design practice, when sorting through tasks and deadlines, to operate on autopilot. Challenges and obstacles create a pause, a chance to reevaluate your direction and examine tangible opportunities that you may have missed otherwise. It is exciting, sometimes scary, and often you can feel unmoored. However, I find that in the end, the solutions chart a course better than the one I was on.
What are you most excited about right now?
We often talk about sustainability in reference to our work, but sustainability needs to apply to the vibrancy of our firms. We recently announced our third generation of principals, a group of six multitalented and long-time members of our team. This group of women and men come from multi-cultural and diverse backgrounds and will lead the firm further into the 21st century. I’m thrilled to see what they will do.
Who are you admiring now and why?
This is difficult to answer. I find inspiration through so many inside and outside of our industry. Lately, I’ve been taken by the nonprofit MASS Design Group, specifically their Gun Violence Memorial Project at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. It is a moving exhibition that provides glimpses into the lives that have been painfully cut short by gun violence. The effect is powerful: guttural and deeply moving.
I also have great admiration for Peter and Cathy Halstead, founders of Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, MT. Their philanthropy has created a new place where their love of the arts is equaled by their pledge to land stewardship, resource conservation, and natural beauty. These passions have culminated in a place truly like no other at the foot of Montana’s Beartooth Mountains.
Finally, for over thirty years, I’ve admired my friend Charles Birnbaum, the founder, president, and CEO of The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Charles’ work has exponentially increased awareness of how people connect to place and the preservation and conservation of outdoor spaces. He recently initiated the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Prize in Landscape Architecture, which is long overdue for our industry.
“We often talk about sustainability in reference to our work, but sustainability needs to apply to the vibrancy of our firms.”
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
I get immense joy when I can elicit someone’s passion for outdoor spaces and by improving local ecological conditions. It is completely humanitarian to leave a place better than I found it.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
Today’s design challenges are far too complex to be solved by a singular individual. Find colleagues and collaborators who are open to ‘discovering’ design solutions that are sustainable and equitable. It can be difficult early in one’s career to find your voice, but seek out mentors, build your own skill sets, be curious, and always challenge yourself.