2023 Class of Fellows, Karen McCoy, Ohio Chapter
MKSK, Columbus, OH
Karen McCoy has been creating beautiful, artful, sustainable places for human interaction and respite throughout her four-decade career. Her lifelong commitment to biophilic design and healing landscapes has shaped her work, creating spaces beloved by the communities they touch. A principal at MKSK, her body of work is recognized for the artistic quality of design details, borne from the site context, history, and culture. Throughout her career, Karen has maintained her commitment to mentoring students and young female landscape architects, and lecturing at Ohio State University, also participating frequently as a studio juror. Among her many award-winning projects are: Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Clinical Sciences Pavilion, Cincinnati, where she created public access to the pavilion to provide an outdoor calming environment with a series of terraced gardens and three 25-foot water walls; Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Columbus, Ohio, where Karen designed and executed a number of beautiful, people-centered spaces in the 90-acre historic park, including a Community Gardens Campus, and provided gathering places through artfully designed planting areas, terraces, structures, and edible landscapes; and Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, where she led the master planning and design for the site and larger adjacent area of neighboring cultural and academic institutions, transforming the campus with a series of phased projects comprising a tapestry of gardens and exterior galleries for public use, events, and exhibition of the permanent sculpture collection.
