Member Spotlight: Ziyu Huang
Ziyu (Zoey) Huang
Landscape Designer
Hart Howerton
Education: Universtiy of Pennsylvania, Master degree of Landscape Architecture; Rensselaer Polytechnic Insitute, Bachelor of Architecture
I am a landscape designer with five years of professional experience, primarily in landscape architecture with a complementary background in architecture. My work bridges landscape, architecture and historic preservation. I began my career working on historically preserved residential projects, where I developed a strong foundation in adaptive reuse and context-sensitive design. My experience also includes wildfire-related projects, exploring landscape strategies that integrate risk mitigation, ecological performance, and long-term resilience. Currently practicing at Hart Howerton, I contribute to projects that integrate land, culture, and place-based identity. My current work focuses on hospitality-driven environments, where I help shape landscape frameworks that enhance user experience while responding to ecological and cultural contexts. My approach emphasizes material sensitivity, spatial clarity, and environmental responsiveness.
What is YOUR story? What led you to a career in landscape architecture? When did you realize you wanted to become a Landscape Architect?
I grew up in a family of architects, so design was always a familiar and natural path for me. I initially pursued architecture, but during my studies my interests began to shift. My thesis focused on the relationship between geology and architecture, which led me to think more deeply about how buildings engage with the land itself. Through that process, I became increasingly interested in the systems surrounding architecture—the terrain, hydrology, ecology, and living landscapes that shape places over time. I began to see that design is most meaningful when it is grounded in site forces rather than imposed upon them. This shift ultimately led me to pursue landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, where my thinking became more grounded in ecological and environmental systems. There, I developed a strong foundation in planting design while working through studio projects that explored wetland systems, water movement, and ecological restoration. I also worked on a wildfire-focused project, which expanded my understanding of landscape as a framework for large-scale environmental resilience and risk.Currently working at Hart Howerton where I contribute to landscape-focused projects that integrate site ecology, material sensitivity, and user experience across hospitality and residential environments. This work continues to deepen my interest in designing landscapes that are both ecologically responsive and experientially meaningful.
What project or work that you have done at any point in your career are you most proud of and why?
One project I am most proud of is my wildfire-focused landscape design studio project completed during my studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The project explored post-fire recovery through an interpretive landscape system, rethinking wildfire-affected terrain not only as a site of damage, but as a living ecological and cultural process. The work proposed a trail-based framework that connected fragmented burned landscapes, integrating forest recovery strategies with public education and experience. Rather than treating wildfire as an isolated disaster, the project framed it as part of a larger cyclical system of landscape change, where ecology, time, and human intervention are deeply interconnected. It combined restoration strategies such as phased reforestation and habitat regeneration with spatial sequences that allowed people to understand different stages of forest recovery on site. What made this project meaningful to me was how it brought together my interests in ecology, planting, and site systems. It also challenged me to think beyond conventional design boundaries—toward a landscape that is simultaneously ecological infrastructure, public experience, and a framework for long-term resilience.It reinforced my belief that landscape architecture has a critical role in shaping how we understand, recover from, and coexist with environmental risk.
What is your favorite outdoor space in the greater NYC area and why?
Little Island on the Hudson River is my favorite outdoor space in NYC. What interests me most is how intentionally it translates infrastructure into landscape experience. The structure is highly engineered, but it never reads only as engineering—it becomes a topography. The shifting elevation, curving paths, and layered planting create a sense of discovery that feels closer to a natural landform than a constructed pier. I’m particularly drawn to the planting design, where dense, seasonal, and textural planting strategies create a strong ecological atmosphere within a very controlled footprint. The vegetation is not just decorative—it actively shapes microclimates, frames views, and changes the experience of movement through the space over time.
What do you do to de-stress, relax or escape?
Pottery is a form of creation that helps me step away from digital and design-heavy work and reconnect with something very physical and intuitive. I enjoy the process of shaping clay, where small adjustments in form, proportion, and texture gradually become a finished object. It’s both focused and open-ended, which makes it a calming but still creative outlet. Hiking is the other way I reset. Being outdoors helps me slow down and observe landscapes in a more direct way—terrain, planting patterns, light, and seasonal change. It feels like a mental reset that is still connected to how I think as a designer, but without any pressure to produce.
Where do you go for inspiration or what do you find inspiring?
I go to national and state parks for inspiration, where I can experience landscapes at a larger ecological scale and observe how terrain, water, and vegetation systems interact over time.