Susan Stainback
Landscape architect Susan Stainback is the founding principal of Sylvatica Studio in Atlanta, Georgia. Over her 30-year career, Susan has designed sites that magnify the inherent beauty of the southeastern United States, making places where people and nature colorfully coexist. Synthesizing intuitive creativity with analytical rigor, her multi-functional approach results in enduring, high-performance urban spaces, parks, and natural preserves.
Sylvatica’s award-winning work has proven influential, substantially benefitting ecological and progressive social environments. Recently, Susan directed the planning and design of Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s Wild Woods, recognized by the ASLA with a Southeast Regional Honor Award and the Georgia ASLA President’s Award. Sylvatica’s design culture is shaped by Susan’s commitment to multi-disciplinary collaboration, as exemplified in the firm’s current work on the Midtown Alliance’s ‘Art Walk’, a four-block streetscape celebrating art and greenspace in the heart of Midtown Atlanta.
Ms. Stainback received her BLA from the University of Georgia and her MLA from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Susan currently serves on the Board of Directors for Park Pride, the only nonprofit providing programs, funding, and leadership to communities all over Atlanta to develop and improve local parks.
Statement: Cornelia Hahn Oberlander led the way as one of the first women graduates of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, and she leads us now through her exemplary works of deep ecological sensitivity and compassionate social responsibility. With this prestigious and timely award named in her honor, Cornelia Han Oberlander inspires us to help solve the pressing issues of our time. I am proud to help fund this important prize that bears her name and that will help call attention to those who have achieved an exemplary body of work in the art and science of landscape architecture.