Josiah Simpson

Josiah is a designer with a passion for enhancing and rehabilitating ecological systems within urban areas and degraded lands, and improving the human experience of those landscapes. His design approach involves a process of understanding the story of a place, unpacking a landscape’s social, economic, and environmental layers from the past and present to identify opportunities for realizing a meaningful and creative project vision. He draws from
a rich background involving public engagement workshops, community design charrettes, agricultural planning, green infrastructure, restoration of stream banks, wetlands and meadows, and landscape construction management in both rural and urban settings over the last 12 years.

As Ecological Designer at Place Alliance, Josiah is responsible for drafting plans ranging from conceptual design to construction documents, 3-D modeling and graphic rendering, filing permits, and site assessment through advanced digital mapping and analysis tools, and fieldwork.

He provides expertise on design workshops and charrette management by organizing activities, facilitating discussions, leading small groups, analyzing and synthesizing qualitative and quantitative data, and anecdotal and responses from participants. From time to time, Josiah will lace up his boots and support restoration plantings, invasive species treatments, and operate machinery.

Josiah joined PLACE Alliance in May 2018. He earned a Masters of Landscape Architecture from UMass, Amherst. His MLA is preceded by a degree at the Conway School of Landscape Design, and a BA in Sociology from Lewis and Clark College. Josiah formerly worked with the Regenerative Design Group operating in both lead and support roles for the planning, design, construction, and project management for ecological landscapes. He produced graphic and
written material, filed permits, made estimates and monitored budgets, and conducted site analysis field-work for nearly 60 projects that include residences, communities, institutions, and land trusts.