EXPERIENCE
Resumes are one size fits all with no flair of personality on why you're right for whoever reads it. I’ve created a personal website because there's more to me, my experience, work, interests, and abilities than what any one page could ever say.
To view my resume in professional format, click here or connect to LinkedIn.
Below is my experience in commentary style, noting professional work, side hustles, and learning experience that have all contributed to making me the design professional I am today.
2023 GARDENBAR
Concept Creator + Designer | Current
GardenGar creates bars, restaurants and cafes in garden settings.
GB is a project/business I am working on outside of my 9-5. Designing, building, and maintaining outdoor spaces has been my line of work for my professional career and I have no doubt any bar/restaurant I design will be stunning. Even though I spend loads of time in restaurants, opening, let alone running a bar, is new to me. A restaurant requires a team and my main focus is pitching to potential partners to round out holes in my experience to bring the concept to reality.
2022 RHS CHELSEA FLOWER SHOW
Attending the event was an immense source of inspiration. This posh 5 day event displays dozens of incredible gardens back to back that are over the top for the purpose of the event but it’s a level of detail and sophistication in a landscape setting I’ve never seen before. The UK has an unmatched culture around gardens and landscapes than we do in the US.
Some of the world's best landscape designers come to display their best work at Chelsea, the show sets the bar for what outdoor spaces can and should be. It helped me realize I’m as talented as these other designers but working under someone else doesn’t allow it to show. This has been a huge push for me to go off on my own. Maybe I’ll have my own garden on Main Avenue soon…
2020 BLOOMY GROUP
Designer + Co-Founder
Covid hit, lockdown underway, Mother’s Day was around the corner and my boyfriend and I moved back to the suburbs with our parents due to the uncertainty of what the future held. We were bored…
Thinking of what we could do together, we decided to make and sell floral arrangement… 2 weeks before Mother’s Day. We ran to local floral shops and picked up plant material for mock-ups. I designed and assembled the arrangements, PM worked his advertising magic to push sales… and orders flew in. Everyone was telling everyone about the three arrangements. I even had a quick appearance on the evening news.
Timeline was the only real obstacle. We didn’t have any refrigeration space for the quantity of flowers we had to buy, leaving assembly to just the day before Mother’s Day to maximize vase life. We pre-painted, sanded and sealed hundreds of mason jars prior to assembly day. After several trips to the floral wholesaler, a full overnight of assembly, and a struggle to get Peonies to open, everything was delivered on time.
The arrangements took far longer to put together and were largely underpriced - but with 154 customers and only 3 complaints, I would say an overall success.
2019 CONNOLLY LANDSCAPE
Designer + Landscape Consultant
My brother opened his landscape company with hardly ever mowing a lawn let alone picking up a pair of pruners. I’ve taken on a consultative role helping on design related work, plant maintenance, and even input on the inner workings of running a landscape company.
Working together has been a great experience - creatively anyway. It is an entirely different type of customer with large suburban properties, small budgets, and some interesting design preconceptions they only want you to second. Budgets between these projects and my 9-5 are a stark contrast from one another - we’re talking hundreds of dollars, not the many thousands to hundreds of thousands I’m normally working with. It takes a bit more time and creativity on how you can still deliver a professional looking intervention on a tight budget. It’s an area where I have room to experiment with new ideas where I may not be able to with the client base in my day-to-day work.
2018 OUTSIDE SPACE NYC
Designer + Project Manager | Current
Planned to be a filler position while in graduate school before landing a big development job turned into a permanent stay… Mainly because I enjoy who I work with, from work to bar hopping to dying my hair blonde at 2AM, we have gotten close over the years.
OSS was my first experience with urban landscapes, quite different to my suburban background. You can’t drive up to the clients house and get to work, you have to climb some stairs, cross a living room, pack an elevator or pass lumber through a window. Thinking about a specimen tree or a hot tub or anything larger? You need a crane…
While in school my role was project administration focused, now I design and project manage and incharge while my bosses are traveling. Whether assisting with design or working with the client from start to finish myself, we are a collaborative team. There’s only three of us outside the construction team, my hands are a part of everything that goes on.
The garden center opened in full swing once essential businesses could begin to open after Covid-19 lockdown, we sold herbs and veg qualifying us as essential. During this time I was working out of our shop which really sharpened my planting skills. I've adopted merchandising into my role, I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I make it look good. Even now, I still like working from the shop because it's like a personal nursery where you can easily develop schemes and combinations from everything you’re surrounded by. Having the shop allows us to get plants we may not have used or seen before and we can see how they grow, see what they pair with etc. I get to partake in buying for the shop and can essentially buy anything, I’ve only been told no once on a very beautiful, very large, but very expensive clumping bamboo. Nursery shopping with Irene is loads of fun, it's the definition of ‘shop till you drop.’
Before the garden center opened, it was what we called our ‘yard’. It's a vacant lot that Edward and Irene converted into a garden that would make you forget you were in Brooklyn. Prior to the shop opening it was primarily used for construction supplies, truck parking and hanging out, now holds a garden center and event space which you can rent out for all sorts of parties.
It really is a cool space and I have never seen anything like it. The yard is my inspiration for GB, with my own spin and a bar, of course.
2018-2019 PRATT INSTITUTE
M.S. Real Estate Practice
Thinking I would switch to the developers seat to be the programatic creator for even larger projects pushing my passion for designing beautiful spaces turned into a re-confirming path in Landscape Architecture. In a way, GB is a small development project, from converting vacant lots to bars and cafes.
2016 CHRISTENSEN LANDSCAPE
Project Manager + Assistant Designer
Christensen is a design and build firm that also builds for other Landscape Architects.
Initially, I started as an intern and my main role was marking out and setting elevation markers over a 5 acre single family residential project we were building for a landscape architecture firm. The scale was exciting, removing a hillside, building a 70’ pool, granite walls everywhere, and planting 30’ trees with payloaders.
The following year I took a full time position as an assistant designer and project manager but my main duties were construction project management and administration for all in and out of house projects. I returned at the same time the company began estimating a new residential build for the same LA firm, about $800K, and followed it through to completion. I worked closely with the Landscape Architects on the project, the clients, and our construction team. It was an enjoyable experience balancing all these parties being part of site meetings, mocking up custom details, custom ordering stone etc. This was on top of the work for all of our in-house design and build work.
I worked hand in hand with a very talented construction team that taught me more about building than any classroom ever could have. The most important thing my boss taught me is to never have someone wait on you, kick everything back as quick as you get it; you never want to be the holdup. Everything always has to move forward.
This was a great job, maybe the most fun of what I’ve had.
2016 UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
B.S. Landscape Architecture
My professors in the Landscape Architecture program were truly great. They really cared and wanted everyone to succeed. It wasn’t until after graduating from UConn and entering the workforce that I realized the extent of knowledge and skills I had gained - and still use on a daily basis.
College was a time I could have pushed myself, experimented, and learned without any risk. There were many resources at my disposal. At the time I felt I was pushed into Landscape Architecture and I was more focused on changing career paths rather than focusing on where I was - admittedly put in minimum effort to get by with good remarks. Design came easy to me and I was fairly good (less model building), but always wonder how much further ahead I would be had I REALLY applied myself?
2010 LAND DESIGNS
Starting at the bottom of the landscape field with garden maintenance on my summer breaks. I worked at a small company based on the Connecticut shoreline maintaining high-end properties along Long Island Sound and the Connecticut River.
My favorite was Essex, a quiet early American downtown lined with historical homes, shops, and restaurants, many of which the company cared for. I spent most of the time at a sea captain's home which stands atop of the hill greeting everyone who enters town. I would deadhead the white pelargoniums that filled urns across the property, clip the box lining the herb garden, and prune the large climbing roses along the pool to get a second flush. Turns out I’m gifted at hedge trimming, perfect batter, crisp edges, and not a single low spot on nearly the first try.
Even though I was pulling countless weeks, trimming hedges, and mowing lawns, - grunt work - my interest in design was growing now that I became a part of keeping every inch of those beautiful properties polished at all times. It showcased my ‘Attention to Detail’ and anyone who has ever worked with me can vouch for my meticulous work.
Remember, pruning promotes growth.
2003 GLANTZ RESIDENCE
At 8 years old, my first job was picking up sticks and pinecones for $5 / hour to keep the lawn clear for the mowing company. The residence was manicured property line to property line. A farmhouse sat overlooking a perfectly mowed lawn surrounded by lush borders. I remember the property vividly, the sweeping driveway, the moss in the brick patio with dogwoods overhead, and the mature specimen plants scattered across the property. It was beautiful. I could walk around for hours. The house and landscape coincided perfectly as one composition.
Looking back, I learned quite a bit about plants and gardening through observation wandering around the property. Ms. Glantz was a true gardener, and I learned quite a bit from her. The most notable was a time she told me a great garden always has something new turning on when something else is turning off. You never want to have a dull moment. It has stuck with me, working in smaller spaces in New York, it’s harder to achieve!
I didn’t realize at the time but this experience began rooting my love for design.
1993 CHILDHOOD GARDEN
From watching my mom plant Marigolds as a toddler to perfectly stripping the lawn with the mower in high school, the garden became a place I could experiment. I would spend hours caring for the garden, pulling weeds, keeping sharp bed edges with the spade, dividing and moving plants to make the most of what we had. My parents didn’t enjoy the constant editing, removal or creation of gardens but it was always left immaculate.
You’ve made it this far, might as well