2025 Class of Fellows: Ricardo R. Austrich, FASLA, Boston Chapter

BSC Group, Boston, MA
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In his over thirty years in practice, Ricardo Austrich has focused on urban landscape projects that enhance and enrich the lives of a diverse population of residents throughout New England and the upper Midwest. His work reflects his belief that our landscapes and our profession are stronger when a broad range of diverse voices are heard and influence the outcome. Through his leadership roles with high visibility-as past president of the Boston chapter and currently as the first landscape architect in more than a generation serving on the City of Boston zoning commission-he has been a powerful spokesperson for diversity, equity, and inclusion, striving to increase the visibility of people of color and helping the profession be more welcoming to urban communities. He is a nationally recognized thought leader in the sensitive and practical approach to preservation and development of historic landscape cemeteries. Ricardo managed, mentored, and collaborated on four historic landscape cemetery master plans across the US and a myriad of cemetery landscape projects, including two award-winning designs. Today, as landscape architecture director at BSC Group, a multidisciplinary environmental engineering firm, Ricardo leads and mentors a diverse team of practitioners. He continues to innovate in the realm of practice by expanding an existing town cemetery with a hybrid green cemetery/parkland development and by guiding current projects at historic cemeteries in Ohio and Massachusetts. Known for his charisma and compassion, Ricardo continues to advocate, educate, and lead in advancing landscape architecture's visibility and urban and societal impact. He has inspired and enlightened students in the US and Australia, and in Chile, where he among other things, organized, convened, and facilitated Chile's first community design charrette.