Profile
The world as we find it is not inevitable. It is a choice.
We are a landscape architecture practice. By design, we transform and invent, we edit and reveal. We pursue the ideas and values that shape the landscapes of our lives. Our perspective shapes how we see the world and guides the changes we pursue.
While our roots are in New England, our work is across the United States and abroad. We have completed major landscapes at Longwood Gardens, Storm King Art Center, and the grounds of the Clark Art. We have shaped the public realms and parks of New York City, Boston, Houston, Tampa, and New Orleans. We are authors of transformative planning projects for Boston’s Franklin Park and Cambridge’s urban forest as well as a climate adaptation strategy for complex sites like the Washington, D.C.’s Tidal Basin. We build homes and gardens in diverse climates, from Southern California to Coastal Maine.
Our own story begins in a garden. Douglas Reed and Gary Hilderbrand founded the practice in 2001, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, after winning the competition to create Arnold Arboretum’s Leventritt Shrub & Vine Garden. Their vision of a practice pursuing and building beautiful, rigorous work grounded in ideas attracted a generation of landscape architects whose collaboration and dialogue are responsible for the practice’s achievements. Eight principals leading Reed Hilderbrand today each bring a unique voice to a common sensibility. We believe in collective intelligence. Our capacity draws upon a conviction about landscape architecture’s potential to change the world. Today we are a team of sixty-five landscape architects and designers working from Central Square in Cambridge and downtown New Haven.
Recently completed projects are featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, Art Newspaper, Galerie, and elsewhere. Among one hundred design awards, Reed Hilderbrand has been consistently recognized by our peers in the American Society of Landscape Architects, American Institute of Architects, and the Society of College and University Planners. ASLA has recognized Reed Hilderbrand with Awards of Excellence for a private residence in England, a resilient waterfront park in the Hudson Valley, and the Franklin Park Action Plan for the City of Boston.
Studio Culture
In the studio, in public meetings, or in the field, a unique sensibility imbues our design culture and our people.
