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Environmental Champion: Bruce Rankin
Woolpert loves the earth, and we try to show it. To celebrate Earth Day 2018, we are featuring a just a few of the Woolpert employees with a passion for this planet—and those who live on it.
Bruce Rankin, RLA
Design Director and Senior Landscape Architect
Cincinnati, OH
An expert in…
Land planning and site and landscape design. Bruce Rankin is a senior landscape architect who leads parks and recreation design projects and collaborates on multidiscipline design efforts. He loves studying how humanity has impacted the environment—and vice versa.
It all started…
In the woods of Long Island. Bruce grew up outside New York City, where he remembers venturing off into the woods after breakfast and finding his way back home just in time for dinner. As an elementary school student, he took courses at the Carnegie Research Lab, during which he collected and studied plants and fish and nurtured his interest in the natural environment.
Today…
Bruce still has a tendency to take his design cues from the natural world. A champion of urban design and the natural environment, Bruce emulates natural systems throughout his projects.
Inspired by…
Frederick Law Olmsted. Bruce has always been moved by Olmsted’s ability to “create” the life of a natural environment in the midst of a man-made one. For example, Olmsted transformed a New York City dump and rock quarry into what is now the world-famous Central Park. Bruce also admires Olmsted’s social reform stance, advocating for a balance between natural and man-made environments.
At Woolpert…
Bruce challenges others to examine how, throughout history, recycling resources was not only a conscientious practice, but also an extremely necessary one. There is a lot that we can learn from previous generations, including the importance of the human element in the overall environmental picture.
Looking ahead…
Bruce is intrigued by ongoing projects at the Northern Kentucky Riverfront Commons. In collaboration with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and a team of local government agencies and contractors, Bruce is working to preserve habitat and protect the shoreline—while creating a cultural destination for the community.
Bruce Rankin, RLA
Bruce Rankin is an award-winning designer with more than 40 years of experience in land planning, site and landscape design and project leadership. He has designed over 60 parks throughout the eastern half of the United States and the Caribbean, and he routinely leads successful urban redevelopment and revitalization projects.