Christopher Counts

MLA Harvard University Graduate School of Design;
BLA University of Georgia, School of Environmental Design

Lecturer

Chris Counts is a designer and visual artist interested in the making and re-making of the urban landscape, public space, design representation and communication. His work is informed by a belief that the medium of landscape has a unique capacity to resolve conflicting programmatic and social interests as well as improve the ecological health and beauty of our cities. His expertise was shaped as a senior associate at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates in New York City, where he provided design leadership on a wide range of projects throughout the United States and internationally.

Chris was the project designer for the Lower Don Lands in Toronto, which encompass 300 acres of post-industrial waterfront. This proposal was generated by an integrated approach to ecology, urbanism, park design and infrastructure and received the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) National Honor Award in Analysis and Planning and the Toronto Urban Design Award of Excellence. Chris was also the project designer for Bailey Plaza at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, which received the Building Stone Institute Tucker Design Award, and the internationally recognized ASLA Green Roof which received the NYASLA Honor Award, featured in the recently published book Green Roofs a Case Study: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Design of the ASLA Green Roof, by Princeton Architectural Press.

Chris was the project designer for the Novartis North American Headquarters Campus Master Plan and the Novartis East Village Landscape in East Hanover, New Jersey; the London Olympics White Water Kayak Course, London, UK; and the Gene Leahy Park Master Plan in Omaha, Nebraska. Other notable contributions at MVVA include collaborations on projects such as the 1.3 mile waterfront Brooklyn Bridge Park in Brooklyn NY, Hudson Rail Yards in NYC, and Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House in Washington, D.C.

Chris has lectured widely at universities and professional conferences across the United States, including Harvard University, University of Georgia, and Auburn University, two ASLA National Conferences, and the Green Roofs for Healthy Cites National Conference. His drawings and design work have been published in the New York Times, Landscape Architecture Magazine, Garden Design Magazine, Architectural Record, and Metropolis Magazine.

Chris’s career was honored when he won the 2007 Rome Prize and attended the American Academy in Rome as the Prince Charitable Trusts Fellow in Landscape Architecture. He received the Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design and received his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia School of Environmental Design. Upon returning to the United States, he accepted a position as a visiting professor in the Landscape Architecture department at the University of Virginia and founded Chris Counts Studio. Chris Counts Studio recently won first prize in a national design competition for the historic landmark Moore Square in Raleigh, North Carolina.