Studio

Hank White, FASLA

Founding Principal

Hank White has been recognized internationally for many highly acclaimed landscape designs with an extraordinary range of scales and regional contexts. Led by the conviction that the designed landscape is among the most perpetual and convincing forms of cultural expression and environmental accountability Hank has pursued an interest in landscape design since childhood. His work examines the dichotomy of nature and culture where responsible and sensitive land cultivation is reconciled with fulfilling the necessities of contemporary life. Balanced and creative solutions integrated within the workings of the natural world define his work’s purpose and motivate him as a creator.

Awarded Fellow in ASLA in 2012, his firm received an ASLA Honor Award in 2013 for the landscape design for Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s Visitor Center – an exemplary fusion of building, landscape design and ecological engineering. Recognized with nearly 35 significant national and international design awards, Hank is also known for his successful collaborations with several internationally celebrated architects. His reoccurring work with Renzo Piano began with the New York Times Lobby Garden – now considered a NYC contemporary landscape icon. His proven authority on rooftop landscape has been featured in Rooftops: Islands in the Sky, by Phillip Jodidio, and Urban Oasis, by Rebecca Gross, - each celebrating dramatic gardens that are energizing new forms of life into cities.

Over two decades, Hank has led the firm developing contemporary landscape paradigms that have changed urban residential living and office working environments. Whether adapting the re-use of aged structures or working with a new construction, the scale and impact of these multi-purpose landscapes are aiding to transforming quality of city and town living. His principle belief that parks, gardens, private and public open space are a vital component to civic infrastructures and essential to one’s physical, mental, and spiritual health. Through rethinking the aesthetic and role of city and town landscapes, his landscape designs’ performance materially enhances its project’s context environmentally, socially, and economically. While his work bridges a broad range of scales, similar research-intensive design processes are employed to create unique and unforgettable sensory landscape experiences.

His environmental stewardship extends into his board memberships on civic and environmentally based non-profit organizations, in addition to his appointment to the Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council. Hank was nominated in 2014 for Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Award. His work has been widely published and recognized by national and international design awards, including honors from the American Society of Landscape Architects, American Institute of Architects, European Centre for Architecture Art Design, Urban Land Institute, NYC Public Design Commission and Time Magazine’s Best Design of the Year. Clients and communities have come to expect his distinctive landscape designs to be of consistent clarity of vision: site-specific, artful, compassionate, timeless, and ultimately enhancing the quality of the human experience.