1057. A Day in the Life: What's It Really Like to Be a Landscape Architect?

“I had a vision of making a difference in the world and helping people who were less advantaged, and I really wanted to work overseas. Soon after I graduated from the University of Arizona, a professor of mine told me about an opportunity in West Africa with the USAID, The United States Agency for International Development. The country is called Burkina Faso today and the project involved doing a baseline data inventory of the South Saharan Desert, which was in the midst of a seven year drought. The work was fascinating and engaging, but after one year our project was suddenly terminated. On reflection this was a major turning point in my life, because I began reflecting on all the feedback I had gotten from my professors and my significant other about how my lifelong passion for drawing and design were ideally suited for the profession of landscape architecture. When I came back to the United States, my significant other and I got married and I enrolled in graduate school at the University of Arizona and after three years launched my career as a landscape architect. The work I do every day continues to inspire me.”

Shawn T. Kelly is a licensed, practicing Landscape Architect, Principal of Kelly Design Group, LLC, a design build firm in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. He opened his firm 25 years ago after moving his practice from San Diego, California. He is also a full time faculty member and Distinguished Faculty Associate in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he has taught for 24 years. He is a Fellow and past president of the American Society of Landscape Architect,  having completed his Presidency in 2019.