School Welcomes New Faculty in Landscape Architecture and Sustainable Design
The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture strengthens its expertise in the areas of Landscape Architecture and Sustainable Design through the appointments of Phoebe McCormick Lickwar, PLA, ASLA, as Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture and Aleksandra Jaeschke as Assistant Professor, Architecture-Sustainable Design.
Lickwar, founder and principal of Forge Landscape Architecture, comes to the school from the University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Jaeschke joins the school after serving on the faculty of the Woodbury School of Architecture in Los Angeles, where she taught urban design studios exploring the catalytic potential of urban infrastructures.
In addition to teaching in the school’s graduate programs, Lickwar and Jaeschke will focus on research and deliver actionable insights that can advance the disciplines.
“With these two outstanding hires, we have an opportunity to build strength and raise the profile of disciplinary areas that are not only fundamentally important to our school, but are critical components of how our University and State address the increasingly complex questions surrounding geo-physical systems and environmental change,” remarked Dean Michelle Addington. “I look forward to working with both Lickwar and Jaeschke as we develop new curricular approaches and chart our leadership path.”
Lickwar specializes in contemporary civic and memorial landscapes, arts-based fieldwork practices, landscape installation and public art, and agriculture in landscape architecture. Her practice, Forge Landscape Architecture, is a research and design firm dedicated to catalyzing positive sociocultural and ecological change through exhibition and built work in the public realm. Prior to founding the practice in 2013, Lickwar worked at PWP Landscape Architecture. Lickwar’s experience in the design and construction of culturally significant gardens and civic landscapes, such as the National World War I Memorial at Pershing Park, Newport Beach Civic Center Park, Glenstone Museum, and the National September 11 Memorial in New York, reveals the power of landscape architecture to connect people and place, strengthen local culture, and support healthy communities. She holds degrees in visual and environmental studies, education, and landscape architecture from Harvard University, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Jaeschke’s research investigates how building regulations, coupled with green building technologies and incentives, shape environmentally-driven design and environmental awareness. Her work focuses broadly on mainstream discourses on sustainability, use of integrative design strategies, process-driven design techniques, and ecology. Jaeschke’s urban design studios at the Woodbury School of Architecture involved close collaboration with community partners, such as the Culver City Department of Community Development. Born and raised in Poland and licensed in Italy, Jaeschke practiced at AION, an architectural firm she co-founded with Andrea Di Stefano, until her move to the United States in 2013. In recognition of her work at AION, Jaeschke received the 2011 Europe 40 Under 40 Award from the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design & Urban Studies and Chicago Athenaeum. She holds a Doctor of Design degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and an AA Diploma from the Architectural Association in London.
The School of Architecture’s Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture recognizes shifts in demographics, infrastructure, and climate and frames these concerns as guiding factors in the design and construction of urban landscape. It uses infrastructure systems, urban watersheds, industrial sites, and suburban communities as laboratories. The Graduate Program in Sustainable Design addresses pressing issues such as resiliency, climate change, population growth, and energy efficiency through a research-based path. Both programs work closely with other allied disciplines represented within the school and with its dedicated research units—including the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and Center for Sustainable Development—to provide students with interdisciplinary and experiential learning opportunities that will equip them to be leaders who take into account both design and social responsibility.