2025 Fellows: Tao Zhang, FASLA, Boston Chapter

Sasaki, Boston, MA
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Tao Zhang deftly weaves his education in ecology and landscape architecture to integrate scientific rigor and creative design in approaching complex environmental and urban challenges. Since beginning his professional career at Sasaki in 2008, he has played a pivotal role in the firm's globally significant ecologically focused planning and design, especially in China. Leading large multidisciplinary teams, he advocates for a bold vision backed by sound ecological principles with demonstrable attention to craft and technical rigor across scales. His work has been recognized with over fifty international, national, and regional design awards. Tao is also committed to mentorship and advancing the field of landscape architecture through teaching, writing, advocacy, and volunteer efforts. Among his many award-winning projects is the 215-acre master plan for Xinyang University's new campus in China which is designed as a living classroom set within rolling terrain, integrating outdoor learning environments and recreational spaces with stormwater management and wildlife habitats. The design features a tapestry of spaces each with its own aesthetic, ecological purpose, and management strategy. In Shanghai's historic Jiading District, the 173-acre Central Park has been transformed into one of the area's most beloved urban green spaces. Stitching together fragmented green patches and neighborhoods, the park is an ecological triumph with over 30 acres of woodlands alongside 14 acres of wetlands, and four acres of meadows, reviving native wildlife absent for decades. In Wuhan, the plan for the Yangtze Riverfront re-envisions the eight-mile-long waterfront which has experienced increasingly frequent devastating floods. The new approach embraces floodwaters, reintroducing frequent and controlled flooding to help replenish nutrient-rich sediment and nurture hundreds of acres of mudflats in the heart of a major metropolitan area.