Born and raised in Evanston, Illinois, just one block from the beach, Hannah spent her childhood appreciating the expansiveness of the Lake Michigan shoreline, watching fields of ice form in sculptural gestures during harsh winters, and admiring its distinct quality as the “inland sea” of the Midwest. She has fond memories of spending elementary school field trips at surrounding Cook County Forest Preserves, learning about animal tracking, native prairie plants, and all that Midwest ecosystems have to offer. Hannah believes that the best landscapes are those that can be enjoyed throughout the seasons and after several years on the East Coast, she was eager to move back to Chicago, where the four seasons of the Great Plains can truly be celebrated. Her interest in landscape architecture has always been rooted in her love for designing spaces that are as much for wildlife as they are for people.

Hannah is a registered landscape architect and Senior Associate at Living Habitats. She brings many years of experience working on complex, large-scale projects and master plans for universities, government agencies and municipalities. Hannah is a 2016 Olmsted Scholar and received her Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the University of Illinois Urbana – Champaign and her Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Her work at both universities, combined with a semester studying abroad in the Netherlands, focused on contextual research, regional landscape planning and conservation-based design concepts. Outside of practice, she enjoys mentoring landscape architecture students, teaching others about the wonders of the profession, and advocating for the importance of design in all aspects of life.

“As a freshwater enthusiast, developing the habitat elements for the Illinois Beach State Park Lake Michigan Shoreline Stabilization project was especially exciting for me. It is not every day that landscape architects are given the opportunity to design for aquatic and avian species as the primary ‘site users’. This project’s ecological focus allowed our team the opportunity to think through the lens of target fauna species regarding design details, construction and long-term use of the project’s habitat elements.”