BSLA Fieldbook BSLA 2015 Spring Fieldbook | Page 38
BSLA
/ MEMBER
JOE GELLER, FASLA
DESIGN COMES FIRST
Y
oung
people
sometimes do
impulsive things.
In my case, it was
open up my own
landscape architecture
practice—just three years
out of school! Needless to say, I got a lot of on-the-job
training in how this industry works, including a key
lesson that has become central to my philosophy
as a landscape architect and a businessman: design
comes first.
As my firm grew, we began to specialize in the
permitting and entitlement process, which LAs
rarely led at the time. That’s where this design
philosophy became especially apparent—design is
what should drive the choices made for a site. With
that “design first” mantra guiding us, my company
grew to about 55 people by the mid-2000s, including
a couple of niche services—sports field design and
design visualization services—that were outpacing
our local Boston market. We were at a tipping point:
We needed to expand in numbers and geographic
reach or scale back our vision and ambition.
That’s when the stars seemed to align at just the
right time. The large, multidisciplinary firm Stantec
approached us about joining them, and the more
I thought about it, the more it made sense. I knew
it would give my staff opportunities to work on
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Education
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BSLA
bigger and different types of projects all over
the country. It would allow us to share our
special expertise with a whole new body of
clients and communities. And, at the same
time, it gave me confidence that this business
I had built from the ground up would
continue to thrive after I’m gone.
We’r e a l l i n t h i s
t o g e t h e r —e n g i ne e r s ,
p l a nne r s , a r c h i t e c t s ,
a nd LAs .
While shifting from a firm of 55 people
to one of, at the time, 6,000 (we’re now at
15,000) definitely came with challenges,
it’s the best decision I ever made. Just as I’d
hoped, we do get to work on exciting and
inspiring projects all over North America
with professionals from all walks of life. But
we’ve also been able to maintain our close
relationships here in Boston, keeping us
rooted in our own community. Personally,
I have gotten to be part of a leadership
team of a tremendous network of design
professionals all over the world, which has
certainly expanded my appreciation of our
industry and our role as landscape architects
in bettering communities.
We’re all in this together—engineers,
planners, architects, LAs. So the more we
understand each other and work together,
the better our work will be. But through it
all, I hold fast to the idea that design comes
first. It’s served me well.
Brookline, MA
AS UMass Amherst (Landscape Construction); BLA, University of Toronto
Vice President with Stantec Consulting Inc.