Kate Orff is showing cities how to build with nature.

She founded SCAPE in 2005 around a belief that landscape architecture could take on some of the biggest physical challenges facing cities.

That has led her toward water.

Coastlines. Wetlands. Rivers. Floodplains. Parks. Ecological systems that have often been separated from the way cities think about infrastructure.

Kate’s work brings them back into the picture.

One of the clearest examples is Living Breakwaters along Staten Island’s South Shore. Conceived after Superstorm Sandy, the project places 2,400 feet of partially submerged breakwaters offshore from Tottenville. The structures reduce wave energy and beach erosion while creating habitat for oysters, fish, and other marine life.

The $111 million project was completed in 2024 after a decade of design, engineering, community engagement, permitting, and construction.

SCAPE has carried the same approach into projects across the country.

In Memphis, the firm helped transform Tom Lee Park along the Mississippi River. In Georgia, it is part of the team behind the Chattahoochee RiverLands, a proposed 100-mile network of parks, trails, and river access. Its work has also shaped waterfronts in San Francisco, resilience planning in Louisiana, and new approaches to urban landscapes in cities around the country.

Kate has spent much of her career expanding what landscape architecture can be asked to do.

A shoreline can protect a neighborhood and create habitat. A park can manage water and bring people together. A river corridor can become transportation, recreation, ecology, and public space at the same time.

The landscape already does work.

Kate designs cities that let it do more.