Isaac Cohen

Bachelor of Arts, Vassar College, 2004
Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Virginia, 2013

American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

Isaac Cohen is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture. He has almost two decades of experience working on all aspects of park and urban public space issues. He has spent this time working with communities around the country on the design of varied public spaces, advocacy and fundraising to build parks, and on engagement and research into critical issues impacting the use of public space. Most recently he was an Associate at Studio Outside Landscape Architecture in Dallas, TX where he brought a wealth of knowledge of Dallas neighborhoods, history, and landscapes to projects ranging from built works to city scale planning and equitable development projects.

He is inspired by building relationships with the communities he works with and finding ways to represent and elevate their history, experiences, and connections to the land in engaging ways. Prior to Studio Outside he worked on a range of projects including Activating Vacancy, an arts and placemaking initiative in the Tenth Street Historic District; Little Free Libraries/Libros Libres, a citywide literacy and placemaking project, and Race and the Control of Public Parks, an analysis of the relationship between Dallas’ public park system and residential racial segregation and movement within the city. His work has been awarded, published, and exhibited nationally and internationally.

Interest areas in research and practice:
His design research addresses the connection between the contemporary practice of landscape architecture and the uses—social, cultural, economic, and ecological—of public space. This work asks challenging questions of the term public and for whom, when, and why we build parks and public spaces.