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