Elizabeth Kennedy, EKLA, Brooklyn, NY
Jennifer Ward Souder, Greener by Design, New Brunswick, NJ
Lecture Title: Standing at the Corner of Design and Social Justice
April 22, 2021
Twenty years ago, NYC-based landscape architect Elizabeth Kennedy drafted a business plan and started her firm with a $3500 grant to scope community gardens in northwest Harlem; immediately prior, she was collecting unemployment. Over the years, as her practice grew, shrank, and grew again, it went from designing the occasional high end residential garden to working with non-profit organizations tasked with caring for a very broad range of heritage sites. Her team gained recognition for design excellence, thoughtful historic preservation and innovative storm water management by bringing a subtle yet direct design approach to projects with strong back-stories. Reviewers have described results for work at sites like the newly-opened Weeksville Heritage Center as “transformative” and “masterful.”
Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect, PLLC has evolved into a needs-based practice, wherein its approach to determining what clients need, and how those needs can be met, defines its service model and brand. Firm principal Elizabeth Kennedy will present examples of recent interpretive, preservation and sustainable design work to discuss the firm’s journey towards full engagement in socially-responsible landscape architecture, and share her plans for practice’s future.
Jennifer Souder provides planning, research, writing and project management services for the Rutgers Center for Green Building, for projects such as the NJ Green Building Manual and the Consortium for Building Energy Innovation (CBEI). She has worked for over 20 years in the fields of landscape architecture, environmental justice, and green building planning/policy, design, construction and operations. While serving as the Director of Capital Projects/Assistant Director at the Queens Botanical Garden (QBG) in New York City for over a decade, Ms. Souder was responsible for guiding the QBG Visitor Center, which earned LEED® Platinum certification, from planning through operations.
Ms. Souder earned both a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Bachelor of Science from the School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan and is a LEED Accredited Professional. She has served on the Pace University Green Roof Advisory Panel, the jury for the NYC Green Building Design Competition, and currently serves on the planning committee for the NJ ASLA Annual Conference, the Asbury Park Zoning Board, the Asbury Park Public Library Board and as the President of the Asbury Park African-American Music Project Inc.