BSLA Fieldbook BSLA 2015 Spring Fieldbook | Page 16
BSLA
/ MEMBER
ANNIE BLAIR, ASLA| CHERI RUANE, ASLA
PRIVATE : PUBLIC | PUBLIC : PRIVATE
T
he following is a discussion between
two landscape architects whose
careers spanned both the public and
private sectors. They started at opposite
ends of the spectrum, both reached
an important point of transition and
shifted across the professional equator
to “the other side”.
When did you discover landscape
?
architecture was a possible career
path for you?
ANNIE: I didn’t even know there
was such a thing as landscape
architecture until after college, but by
the time I graduated there were several
factors in place that made landscape
architecture a good fit—my parents
stressed choosing a career that would
be “useful to society;” my father’s
family was interested in gardening and
agriculture; the very liberal Catholic
high school I went to (post-Vatican II)
gave a lot of thought to building and
fostering community; and I’ve always
loved drawing and thinking about
color. While I was at Bowdoin College I
decided I wanted to be an architect, but
that would have meant transferring,
and I was extremely happy there. So,
I stayed with my history major, which
was also about exploring the idea of
community, and was forced to learn
how to write at least competently,
which has been an advantage.
CHERI: I have always loved
design. As a young girl growing up
in suburban New Jersey, my family
and I spent a lot of time in NYC on the
weekends: museums, exhibits, tours,
street pretzels— the works. My high
school art teacher thought I would
like interior design (because I was a
girl, and architecture was for boys).
At the time, I didn’t know any better
and boys had cooties, so I