Lee Anne Kirby, B.L.A. '81 Adjunct Professor Department of Landscape Architecture University of Arkansas 230 Memorial Hall Fayetteville, AR 72701 http://uark.edu   leeannekirby@cox.net 949/338-6557

In her own words

The most important thing I learned in school was how to think, kindled by Mort Karp's "You don't know what you don't know" and Richard Sheridan's training on how to really see.

If I could go to school again – who knows?  I may!

The most satisfying thing about my current work is being back in a studio environment working with some great people!

Right now, I’m working on the Orange County Great Park in Irvine, which is a reuse of the El Toro Marine Base focusing on sustainable design. I have also returned to the University of Arkansas to teach in the landscape architecture department.

My favorite project is Dumbarton Oaks by Beatrice Ferrand - and to choose another, the master plan for the City of Irvine and each piece of the whole.

Words of wisdom: Value your time in school and do what you can to broaden what you study - like literature that can enrich the tale of design stories as well as inspire you to think about all the aspects of your life.

About Lee Anne Kirby

After graduating with the second class in the newly formed landscape architecture program "with 17 brothers," Kirby joined The SWA Group in Dallas, transferring to the firm’s Laguna Beach office in 1986. She credits her mentors at SWA (co-founded by Hideo Sasaki and Peter Walker) in shaping her approach to design, in which landscape architecture is defined as "everything but the buildings."  She says, "We did a lot of planning as well as site specific design work - focusing the telescope from the broad context of the place to the details and turning the wheel back again to ensure that what we were doing was appropriate for the site.”

Kirby produced award-winning projects during her 10 year practice as Kirby & Company, where she worked on a range of project types. She says, “Site planning was, and is, an important part of the landscape architectural design process. A conceptual framework must be established so that people may fully experience the place.” Subsequently, Lee Anne joined her primary client, The Irvine Company, for three and a half years. There she managed the design process for the company's office and resort projects "with an incredible team that really taught me to see with owner's eyes. We tested the value of design and development ideas with the 10% rule: Will this decision make the project at least 10% better?"

Kirby has addressed many aspects of the American landscape . . .except for public parks until she joined the Orange County Great Park Design Studio to work with Ken Smith and Mia Lehrer on the ambitious transformation of the 1,350-acre El Toro Marine Base from flat land into 60-foot-deep canyons - a sustainable civic park design. In Fall 2008, she enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to teach fifth year design and an urban design seminar class at her alma mater in Fayetteville, Arkansas.