Pioneer Information
Born in Wisconsin and raised in Alaska, Olin received a degree in architecture from the University of Washington in 1961. He practiced in Seattle and New York before traveling to England on a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 1972-1973 and to Rome as a Fellow in Landscape Architecture at the American Academy in Rome in 1974-1976.
Teaching has been integral to Olin’s career. Since 1967 he has taught in the landscape architecture department at the University of Pennsylvania, and also served as chairman of the landscape program at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design from 1982-1987.
In 1976 Olin and Bob Hanna formed the firm Hanna/Olin. The Philadelphia practice was instrumental in creating or restoring urban landscapes which transformed how people experience city life. They practiced together until 1996, when Olin and senior staff members formed the Olin Partnership. In 2008 the firm rebranded themselves as OLIN. Among Olin’s many landmark projects are: Battery Park City, Bryant Park, and Columbus Circle, New York; the Barnes Foundation and Rodin Museum, Philadelphia; and the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden and Washington Monument grounds, Washington D.C.
Interested in broadening the profession of landscape architecture and contributing to a dialogue with other professions, Olin is a frequent lecturer and has authored or co-authored nine books to date. His drawings and paintings have been in museums and galleries both in the U.S. and abroad. A 1999 Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, he is the recipient of numerous awards including in 2013 the National Medal of the Arts and Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture.
