Brian Davis

Education

University of Virginia, Master of Landscape Architecture; North Carolina State University, Bachelor of Landscape Architecture 

Biography

Brian Davis, PLA, FAAR is an Associate Professor in the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. His work focuses on coastal landscape form, with a special interest in infrastructure, public space, and ecology. This interest in landscape form is anchored by the realization that it can be both indicative of past processes and values as well as future performance. His work is driven by the contemporary interest in design methods as a form of inquiry, rather than as mere problem-solving or the application of principles or knowledge generated by other means. This insight translates to his teaching, which emphasizes invention, the ability to synthesize among unlike things, and to contextualize facts and ideas. He has published theoretical and technical papers and book chapters, including “Public Sediment” in Towards an Urban Ecology, “Wider Horizons of American Landscape” in Landscape Journal, and “The Asymmetry of Landscape” in Journal of Landscape Architecture.

Currently Brian is working on projects to develop and study innovative sea level rise adaptation approaches for coastal parklands in the Chesapeake Bay region, sediment design projects in the Great Lakes, and flooding infrastructure projects for the four coasts of the United States. He works in collaboration with the Engineering with Nature program of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the National Parks Service, as well as local partners. Along with Sean Burkholder, Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, he organized DredgeFest Great Lakes and is co-Primary Investigator of Healthy Port Futures, a 1.6-million dollar research project that is featured in the 2019 exhibition Design With Nature Now at the University of Pennsylvania and was awarded a 2020 National ASLA Award for Planning and Analysis. He was previously an Assistant Professor at Cornell University and has practiced landscape architecture in Buenos Aires and New York City. He is a registered landscape architect and member of the Dredge Research Collaborative. His work has been recognized by the National ASLA Awards, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, and the Architects Newspaper, as well as the American Academy in Rome.