Susannah DRAKE

Susannah Drake is a Principal at Sasaki and founder of DLANDstudio. She is one of only four people in the United States who is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Susannah lectures globally about resilient urban design and has taught at leading design schools across the US including Harvard, IIT, FIU, and Syracuse among others. Her work titled “From Redlining to Blue Zoning: Equity and Environmental Risk, Liberty City, Miami 2100,” detailing the relationship of historically marginalized black populations of Miami with sea level rise is currently on display at the 2023 Venice Biennale.

Drake combines practice, teaching, and research and is currently an adjunct associate professor at the Irwin Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union. Her award-winning work is consistently at the forefront of innovation in urban ecological infrastructure. Through a pioneering methodology of partnering with communities on grants from organizations including the Graham Foundation, the Furthermore (J.M. Kaplan) Fund, the AIA, NOAA, EPA, NEIWPCC, NYSDEC, and NYSCA, she enables green infrastructure, park creation, and environmental justice. As the founding Principal of DLANDstudio she created a methodology that has become a new business model being replicated by large architecture and engineering firms. Susannah connects art and science through her work, her communication methods, and her relationships across disciplines and geographies.

Susannah was recognized as an Architectural League Emerging Voice and AIA Young Architect Award winner. The ASLA gave Susannah their Community Advocacy Award. Her New Urban Ground project with ARO detailing climate adaptation strategies for Lower Manhattan is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Museum. In addition, her Gowanus Sponge Park won the inaugural Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Climate Action. She has published numerous book chapters and articles on climate adaptation and infrastructure. Her book “Gowanus Sponge Park” will be published by Park Books in the Spring of 2024. Susannah earned MArch and MLA degrees from the Harvard GSD and a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Dartmouth College.