Celebrating a Move to Principal Emeritus for Douglas Reed
Reed Hilderbrand celebrates founder Douglas Reed, FASLA, in a new role as Principal Emeritus beginning December 2022. The news was announced to staff and shared with clients and collaborators this morning.
The acclaimed landscape architect, recipient of the 2019 American Society of Landscape Architects Design Medal, studied at Louisiana State University and Harvard Graduate School of Design. After many years leading Child Associates, Inc., in 1993 he founded Douglas Reed Landscape Architecture from his porch in Boston’s Jamaica Plain. In 2000 he launched Reed Hilderbrand to formalize years of collaboration and conversation with Gary Hilderbrand. Doug curated the business as much through the selection and cultivation of its leaders as through his commitment to relationships with clients and collaborators. Through his values and point of view, Doug inspired an approach to practice and a philosophy of design that continues to mature as the practice grows in size and evolves in capacities under the leadership of Gary and their five partners: John Kett, John Grove, Eric Kramer, Adrian Nial, and Beka Sturges. A firm that began on a porch now has seventy employees with offices in Cambridge and New Haven.
Doug writes, “I want you all to know how proud I am of Reed Hilderbrand, of what we individually and collectively have created, over the course of more than twenty years. I could never have imagined in 1993, when I set out to found a practice of my own, that it would reach such heights. I see the promise of continuing success in the firm’s future, and it is immensely satisfying.”
Now assuming a strategic role and presence within Reed Hilderbrand, Principal Emeritus, Doug will be a creative resource and critic for project teams in the development and realization of design, primarily focused on projects with which he is currently involved. This next chapter in Doug’s career will permit dedicated time for creative work outside of landscape architecture plus quality time with his husband, family, and friends.
Reed Hilderbrand’s partners and staff proudly congratulate Doug as he steps into the role of Principal Emeritus. An excerpt from a recent interview recorded in the Leventritt Shrub & Vine Garden at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University touches on the origin of the practice in their contrasting and complementary personalities.
