2025 Fellows: Richard Roark, FASLA, Pennsylvania-Delaware Chapter

OLIN, Philadelphia, PA
by

x

Richard Roark is a landscape architect who fosters essential connections to create landscapes of lasting relevance. Committed to the power of collaborative intelligence, he shapes civic works that fulfill-rather than merely reflect-the aspirations of the public and his clients. Sustainability and resilience are central to his work, where aesthetic vision intersects with technical innovation to produce iconic landscapes. As a partner at OLIN, Richard approaches each project with curiosity and exemplifies the power of landscape architecture to create enduring public impact, enriching communities across both natural and built systems. At Dilworth Park, Richard helped craft an urban oasis from a fragmented and inaccessible plaza into an iconic destination in the heart of Philadelphia, blending the historic character of City Hall with modern design sensibilities. Key features include an interactive fountain that converts to a winter ice rink, a lawn parterre, and sculptural glass pavilions offering transit access. ResilienCity Park, now Hoboken's largest park, blends recreation, public space, and nature-based solutions to address flooding in a city committed to climate risk adaptation. Transforming a former industrial site, the park manages nearly two million gallons of stormwater and features amenities such as a raised "Palisades Terrace," a community event room, a café, a splash pad, an ice rink, walking paths, and a "Play Valley" with treehouses and natural play spaces. In London, Richards created a welcoming yet secure landscape for the US Embassy that reflects democratic ideals of transparency and equality. Inspired by a combination of American landscapes and English park tradition, the design features spiraling paths, prairie-like meadows, and a freshwater pond and transforms the green roof into a lush meadow of native grasses.