Earl H. Graffam, FASLA
Category: Works
OLIN, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Earl "Skip" Graffam, of OLIN, received his nomination, in Works, from the Pennsylvania-Delaware Chapter. Graffam's global award-winning work balances the unique needs of each site, the people who will use it and the environment as a whole. As OLIN's director of research, he fostered the integration of input from communities, governments, designers, engineers, scientists and other collaborators to create enduring public spaces that ignite social engagement and enliven living and cultural systems. He is the complete landscape architect, a remarkable professional with an unusual depth of knowledge in both architecture and landscape architecture. There isn't an aspect of practice that Graffam hasn't mastered from conceptual design through construction, giving him a reservoir of wisdom he shares through collaborative design and research studios and as a university lecturer. His ability to work simultaneously at multiple scales of design has contributed to the successful implementation of multifunctional landscapes-beautiful, finely crafted spaces which also act as catalysts for improving the ecologic, economic and social health of communities and their citizens.