Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects, P.C.
Signe Nielsen
Signe Nielsen, FASLA, has been practicing as a landscape architect and urban designer in New York since 1978. Her body of work has renewed the environmental integrity and transformed the quality of spaces for those who live, work, and play in the urban realm. A Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, she is the recipient of more than 100 national and local design awards for public open-space projects, and her work has been featured extensively in national and international publications. Ms. Nielsen teaches urban design and landscape architecture at Pratt Institute in both the graduate and undergraduate programs within the School of Architecture. She currently serves as president for the Public Design Commission of the City of New York. Born in Paris, she holds degrees in urban planning from Smith College, in landscape architecture from City College of New York, and in construction management from Pratt Institute.
Statement: Cornelia is an exemplary and influential leader whose lifetime contributions to the profession have made a lasting and potent impact. She championed ideas about rewilding places, therapeutic spaces, and community engagement long before it was common practice for landscape architects to do so. As a fellow graduate of Smith College, I am particularly indebted to her visionary landscape master plan for the campus, which established a twenty-year roadmap for the college that is as innovative today as it was in 1996.