ABOUT ME
Jessica is an Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota. Her research work investigates new ways of adapting to future unknown water conditions in extreme landscapes, with a focus on infrastructure, materiality, and ephemerality. Recent research in Las Vegas, Nevada, tracks invisible stormwater infrastructure and its impact on urbanism, ecological emergence, mobility, and socio-hydrologic systems. Other research work catalogs land-based water infrastructure in arid climates, exploring indigenous, historic, and low-tech infrastructural methodologies and construction methods as ways of mitigating flooding, harvesting water, and encouraging vegetation. She is interested in experimental representation techniques, integrating digital technology, hybrid drawing, and modeling to explore landscape change and processes. Her work has been published in Open Rivers Journal (University of Minnesota), Process 15 and Process 17 (University of Pennsylvania), Landscape Record (CELA), and PLAT 2.0 If You See Something, Say Something (Rice University).
Before joining the faculty at UMN, Jessica worked in landscape architecture and design in Minneapolis (TENxTEN), Los Angeles (Aridlands Institute), Rotterdam (WEST8), Berkeley (TLS Landscape Architecture), and San Francisco (Bionic). She received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. On a typical day, you could find her talking to her plants, on a bike ride, or laying in the sun.
Recognition:
CDES Collaborative Grant ($15,000), with Mary Guzowski, Genell Ebbini, Joseph Favour, Richard Graves, and Abimbola Asojo (2020)
H.W.S. Cleveland Fellow in Landscape Architecture (2017-2019)
ASLA MN Merit Award; Unbuilt; d.tour Detroit - DIA Plaza and Cultural Connections Competition,
with TENxTEN (2019)ASLA MN Merit Award; Planning; Minnesota River Greenway Cultural Resources Interpretive Plan,
with TENxTEN (2018)Faculty Medal in Landscape Architecture (2013)
Fort Mason Design Center Competition Winner (with West8, 2012)
Narendra Juneja Award (2012)
Chair’s Merit Scholarship (2010–2013)
Hugh Ferriss Award for Architectural Drawing (2009)
Fitzgibbon Scholar (2005–2009)