Arch League of NY: FF –Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect

The longest-operating Black-owned and woman-led landscape firm in the country opens its studio for a virtual visit.

Founded in New York in 1994, Elizabeth Kennedy Landscape Architect is the oldest Black-owned and woman-led landscape firm in the United States. Over nearly three decades, EKLA has worked to preserve historic landscapes, establish cultural sites, and rethink green infrastructure. In its focus on sites of historic erasure, the firm has—in its own words—“quietly challenged mainstream assumptions about the aspirations and needs of underrepresented voices,” reimagining the intersection of landscape architecture and social justice.

Completed projects include:

• The African Burial Ground National Monument, a national monument and national park on the site of a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century African burial ground in Lower Manhattan.
• Weeksville Heritage Center Landscape, the landscape restoration of a nineteenth-century African American agricultural settlement in Brooklyn.
• USPS Morgan Processing and Delivery Center Green Roof, a 2.5-acre green roof atop a landmarked 1933 Postal Services center in Manhattan.

Current and upcoming projects include:

• The Peninsula Mixed-Use Development, a vibrant mixed-use campus on the site of a former juvenile detention center in the Bronx.
• Brooklyn Navy Yard Building 92 Entry Plaza, a redesigned entry plaza for the Brooklyn Navy Yard that incorporates commemorative elements from the historic site.