Richard Weller
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Richard Weller is an Australian
landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manageme ...
and
academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
. He is Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, having succeeded
James Corner James Corner (born 1961) is a landscape architect and theorist whose works exhibit a focus on "developing innovative approaches toward landscape architectural design and urbanism." His designs of note include Fresh Kills Park on Staten Island and th ...
in 2013. Weller also holds the Martin and Margy Meyerson Chair of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, is on the board of directors of the Landscape Architecture Foundation, Washington D.C., and is Creative Director of the award-winning ''LA+ Interdisciplinary Journal of Landscape Architecture''. He was formerly a Winthrop Professor of Landscape Architecture at the
University of Western Australia The University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Perth, the state capital, with a secondary campus in Albany, Western Australia, Albany an ...
, and director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC). He has received a number of awards for teaching excellence including a 2012 national citation "for sustained commitment to inspiring and enabling students to engage creatively and critically with complex design problems". In 2017, and again in 2018, Weller was named by DesignIntelligence as one of the "25 most-admired educators" based on a comprehensive survey across the US design industry. "Weller demonstrates an intense engagement and commitment to students' academic and professional careers", according to the report. "He is advancing the profession through a critical look at past and current issues in ecology and design . . . shows humility and humanity in a challenging profession, and has the ability to always call us back to the biggest ideas that design needs to address." In 2020, Weller was inducted into the Academy of Fellows of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA).


Works

Weller is a landscape architect and former co-director (with Vladimir Sitta) of
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n landscape architecture firm Room 4.1.3. whose built projects include the "Garden of Australian Dreams" at the
National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia, in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''National Muse ...
in
Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, ACT. The built garden attracted controversy for its radical design. He was also part of the original design team for the
Elizabeth Quay Elizabeth Quay is a mixed-use development project in the Perth#cbd, Perth central business district. Focusing on an area located on the north shore of Perth Water near the landmark Swan Bells, the precinct being developed by the project was nam ...
project in
Perth, Western Australia Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
. Weller's design work has been exhibited in the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
(1998) as a finalist in th
Seppelt Contemporary Art Awards
His work has also been exhibited at the Venice Biennale (2004, 2021), the MAXXI Gallery in Rome (2016), the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts, which houses significant examples of European, Asian, and American art. Its collection includes paintings, sculpture, tapestries, and decorative arts. It was founded ...
in Boston (2017), the Canadian Design Museum in Toronto (2018), and the
Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...
in New York (2020) as part of the "Countryside, The Future" exhibition curated by Rem Koolhaas. Weller exhibited as an invited participant in the central pavilion at the 2021
Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...
di Architettura curated by Hashim Sarkis, and at the 2022 Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. In 2002 Weller's design was selected as a finalist in the
Pentagon Memorial The Pentagon Memorial, formally the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, located just southwest of The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., is a permanent outdoor memorial to the 184 people who di ...
competition in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
and in 2005 he was a finalist in the Tsunami Memorial competition in
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
. His early work (1990 to 1995) as consultant to Berlin landscape architecture firm Muller, Knippschild Wehberg (now Lützow 7) was heavily awarded in European design competitions.


Research and Publications

Weller gave the Frederick Law Olmsted Memorial Lecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2011, and many invited lectures and addresses including at Milano Architecture Week (Milan, 2019), the first World Forum on Urban Forests (Mantova, 2018), and to the UN Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Montreal, 2017). He is a regular commentator on planning and design issues. He is author of eight books and over 100 single-authored papers. His publications include: *''Room 4.1.3: Innovations in Landscape Architecture'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005) *"An Art of Instrumentality: Thinking Through Landscape Urbanism" in Charles Waldheim (ed), ''The Landscape Urbanism Reader'' (Princeton Architectural Press, 2006) *''Boomtown 2050: Scenarios for a Rapidly Growing City'' (University of Western Australia Press, 2009) *''Made in Australia: The Future of Australian Cities'' (with Julian Bolleter) (UWA Publishing, 2013) *''The Atlas for the End of the World'' (2017), an ASLA award-winning website which audits the status of land use and urbanization in the most critically endangered bioregions on Earth. *''Design with Nature Now'' (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, 2019). *''Beautiful China: Reflections on Landscape Architecture in Contemporary China'' (with Tatum Hands)(ORO Editions, 2020). *''The Landscape Project'' (with Tatum Hands)(AR+D Publishing, 2022).


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weller, Richard Architects from Western Australia People from Perth, Western Australia Living people Year of birth missing (living people) University of Pennsylvania faculty