Architect 2014-03.pdf
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70<br />
CENTER<br />
ARCHITECT THE AIA MAGAZINE MARCH <strong>2014</strong> WWW.ARCHITECTMAGAZINE.COM<br />
NEXT PROGRESSIVES<br />
SEA CHANGE<br />
SUSANNAH DRAKE OF DLANDSTUDIO IS<br />
REVIVING CONTAMINATED LANDSCAPES<br />
WITH HER POLITICALLY SAVVY PRACTICE.<br />
Susannah Drake in the<br />
Brooklyn, N.Y., office of<br />
her firm, Dlandstudio.<br />
Text by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson<br />
Portrait by Noah Kalina<br />
OUTSIDE THE WINDOW of my office, I see a<br />
beautiful river called the Jones Falls as it winds<br />
through the city of Baltimore to the Chesapeake<br />
Bay. Above this river is an elevated expressway,<br />
so I also see the fetid runoff that drains from<br />
eight lanes of asphalt into the water below. A<br />
few blocks from here, several roads have been<br />
decimated as construction crews attempt<br />
to repair 100-year-old sewer pipes. And this<br />
isn’t unique to where I live. Stormwater<br />
management and failing infrastructure are<br />
national concerns, the latter causing a $3.1<br />
trillion loss in U.S. gross domestic product,<br />
according to the American Society of Civil<br />
Engineers. That’s $3,100 per household.<br />
Susannah C. Drake, AIA, principal of<br />
Brooklyn, N.Y.–based Dlandstudio, has built<br />
her practice around these pressing issues. Take<br />
the Gowanus Canal, a 2-mile-long waterway<br />
in Brooklyn. The canal was declared an U.S.<br />
Environmental Protection Agency Superfund<br />
site several years ago and is considered one of<br />
the most polluted waterways in the country. It’s<br />
exactly the kind of design challenge that Drake<br />
loves to tackle. “A city is an incredibly complex<br />
and interesting system, and I like to think<br />
holistically about a problem,” she says.<br />
Drake’s unconventional path out of<br />
architecture school inspired her to establish<br />
this niche. A licensed architect and a licensed<br />
landscape architect, she graduated with<br />
master’s degrees in both disciplines from<br />
Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.<br />
“When I first got out of Harvard I had three Ivy<br />
League degrees and I couldn’t get a job,” Drake<br />
says (she attended Dartmouth College as an<br />
undergraduate). “People asked me: ‘What do<br />
The Next Progressives series of emerging-firm profiles is proudly supported by VT Industries.
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