Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Landscape Architecture Major
GPA: 3.94
Ecological Cities Minor
Graduating May 2025
About Me
I am a Fifth-year Landscape Architecture student attending Virginia Tech originally from Arlington, VA. I have always been interested in art and nature and how they overlap. My personal design goals are rooted in improving people’s physiological well-being, connecting communities, and representing cultures.
Extracurriculars
Sigma Lambda Alpha - Landscape Architecture Honors Society - Blacksburg, VA
Secretary
President
Chinese American Society
Public Relations Co-chair
E xternal Vice President
President
Advisor
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA-VT)- Blacksburg, VA
Member
American Sign Language Club
Member
Secretary
Foundry Park
Heritage Healing Retreat
Experiencing EcoZones Echos of Industry Play Naturally
Western Europe Study Abroad Lose Design
A community hub for the residents of Radford, VA
Retreat center for improved physical and mental wellbeing
A Learning Center For Virginia Beach A Norfolk, VA Post Industrial Waterfront Park
Mountain Mission School Campus Redesign
Educational booklet highlights Summer Internship
experienCing eCoZones:
Experiencing EcoZones is a systems of ecological defenses that are explorable and educational, demonstrating the impacts of sea level rise. Zones with adapted structures and engineered defense show how to preserve and restore the natural environment and the use of it through built design. Together they tell a story of sea level rise by allowing people to experience the transitions through multiple ecozones.
1. Main Entrance
2. Forest Trail Public Parking
3. Welcome Center Main Parking
4. Welcome Center
5. Education Building
6. Forest Trails
7. Children’s Nature Play Loop
8. Bird Room
9. Wet Meadow Trail
10. Neighborhood Trail
11. Public Pier
12. Wetland Boardwalk
13. Water Recreation Canal
14. Resilience Dike Trail
15. Infinite Loop: Upper and Lower Wetland Walk
16. Wetland Research Hut
17. River Research Hut
Existing EcoZones
The site has four notable ecosystems as well as an easement line that runs through the center as shown.
Proposed EcoZones
Four EcoZones are proposed.
The Forest Zone: public exploration and interaction through the forest under story.
The Meadow Zone: research and education hub, experiential learning, and sensory landscapes.
The Shrub Wetland Zone: highlights the effects of sea level rise.
The Riverine Zone: experiences and research with water and protective measures against sea level rise.
EcoZone Systems
experienCing eCoZones:
Strategies
Ecological Defense Infinite Engineered Defense
Establish, restore, and adapt to sea level rise as the first defense. This area is adapted to the area’s changing conditions and proposes restored marshes and an adaptive maritime forest. The goal is to establish an ecosystem that can withstand and absorb sea level rise.
To adapt to sea level rise and remain resilient against the changing conditions of the site– establishing a story of the impacts of sea level rise on different ecologies. This defense takes form in adapted resilient structures that play into the design experience “experiencing ecozones”
To be resilient and establish the secondary defense against sea level rise. Post sea level rise, this defense will be a remaining tool to protect the inland infrastructure and habitats. This defense structure is seen as a dike cutting through the site.
Main Building
Precedent Images
Main Building
Research Boardwalk Forest Trail
Research Huts
Riverine Boardwalk Nature Play Loop
Main Building
Detail Plans
Riverine Experience
Riverine Experience
Research Huts
Research Huts
Echos of Industry is a resilient post-industrial park in Norfolk, VA that reclaims the Mosley Creek Industrial Shoreline for the surrounding community and environment. It offers a chance to transform an industrial space into a sustainable, accessible park that benefits both the community and the environment. The post-industrial park honors the site’s history while providing a forward-thinking solution that strengthens the resilience of the area for future generations.
Mosley
Strategy : Growing the Shoreline
Concept: Echos
Light Rail
Vehicular
Railroad
Pedestrian
Experiential
Elevated
Ground Level
Road Path
Topography
Industry Frame
Industry Service
Barges
Retention
Shoreline Growth
Phasing
Precedent Images
GTSM Magglingen AG / Macolin SA (Switzerland) The Tides Inn by Waterstreet Studio (Irvington, VA)
Benjakitti Forest Park by Turenscape (Bangkok, Thailand)
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord by Latz + Partner (Duisburg, Germany)
Bernepark by DTP (Bottrop, Germany) Garden of Cosmic Speculation by Charles Jencks (Scotland)
Play Naturally is about bringing a pop of color into the Mountain Mission campus and activating a more playful space. Color and material choice was particularly important in this design as they were intended as call backs to nature.
I studied different possible spatial compositions suitable for primary education children that would encourage movement and interaction in a frequently used space.
Hurley Hall
Outdoor Dining
Educational Garden
Playground and Deck
Peter Rabbits Garden:
A year round garden space that used to teach students about the growing cycle. During non-growing months, the tops of the planting beds can be covered to then act as a table for writing.
The Axis:
A painted walkway activates the space as a pedestrian axis and is a call out to the creek running through the campus.
Hurley Plaza:
Wooden platforms, used for picnicking, sitting, laying down, and as an outdoor classroom, form secondary movement spaces through the plaza.
The Human Sundial:
An education element for students to explore shade movement in relation to time.
The Playground:
Colors and elements mimic natural materials in the landscape. Mounds and trampolines represent water droplets, climbing rocks represent river rocks, and artificial branches holding up the swing mimic drift wood. Custom made shade structures cast shadows mimicking the pattern of water.
The Bird Nest:
An overlook of the campus, as if seeing it from a birds view. The deck creates a hierarchy of elevation for kids of different ages.
This process help me gain a deeper understanding of how a plan could be built. Layout and detail plans taught me the importance of intentional measurements for ease of construction. It also taught me the importance understanding how things are built in order to construct details.
heritage heaLing retreat:
Heritage Healing Retreat, located in Blacksburg, VA, is a nature, health, and wellness retreat designed to be a relaxing experience for adults who are experiencing new stresses in their life. This stress may come from a new school, a new job or position, balancing work and social life, etc. The retreat focuses on teaching techniques to reduce and manage these stresses.
Precedent Images
Green Roof Cabin
Serentiy Garden Path
Meditation Platform
Marsh Walk Platform
Green Roof Welcome Center and Restaurant
heritage heaLing retreat
Lodging and Welcome Center
Rain Garden Courtyard:
The rain garden is a central focal point of the cabins. It helps reduce water flow towards the cabin, provides a visual buffer between cabins facing opposite of each other, and has benches for guests to sit.
As this site is located partially in a floodplain, best management practices are incorporated to reduce flooding risks. Other than the rain gardens, buildings in the Retreat campus have green roofs to help manage water on the site and decrease the visual disturbance when overlooking the park from the Welcome Center. Hardscape also is created with permeable materials to reduce runoff.
Perspecrtive Drawings
a. Marsh Walk:
The Marsh Walk is an elevated path above the existing marsh and native plants. The path leads to the popular stargazing spot at Heritage Park.
b. Serenity Garden:
The Serenity Garden provides storm water management is the sites flood zone and allows access for visitors to be able to walk over top the garden and sit if desired.
c. Reflection Pond:
A trail loops around the pond with three access trails. Benches around the pond are provided for rest and reflection.
Foundry
Foundry park is a community hub for the residents of Radford, VA. It is a brown field located on a former foundry site that produces iron and coal. The design is centered around improving social cohesion and a green link for the Radford Park system.
The Market
Viewing Platform
Flexible Field
Parking
Community Gardens
Sculpture Garden
Playground
Sand Volleyball Courts
Skate Park
Picnic Shelter
Outdoor Fitness Gym
Dog Park
Restroom
Boardwalk
Boardwalk Deck
Through this project I learned more about brown field remediation, designing for the focus of college aged students alongside families, and design for social cohesion.
New River
-Fenced o
-Slow movement of water
-Very polluted
Lagoon
-Untested but likely toxic
-Several thorny vegetation surrounding it
-Unattractive
Steep slope
-Divides the two plateaued areas
-Very sandy due to ll
-Heavily vegetated
Former foundry site
-Untested soil but likely highly contaminated
-Leveled using ll
-Overgrown vegetation
Commercial Zoning
-Primarily gas stations
Land ll
-Polymer membrane and topsoil to cover land ll
-Tree or large shrub plantings will puncture polymer membrane
-Provides best view of the water
Current road access
-Enterance on the northern end of the site
-Close to the land ll/poor sense of arrival
-Must cross railroad
Possible new road access
-More centerally located
-Further away from the land ll
Residential
-Single-two family housing
-Was where most people who worked at the foundry lived
Foundry park
A space is for local residents and vendors to sell or buy fresh produce, food, drink, handcrafted goods, and more.
A place of relaxation with features of art and nature to stimulate senses.
A memory of the foundry that was previously located on the site, memorialized by the industrial themes play equipment and engravings along the swings.
The boardwalk sits in a constructed wetland that will help clean up contaminated soils from the foundry. It extends to meet with neighboring parks to build a green link through the city.
Industrial Themed Park: Sculpture Garden: The Market: Boardwalk and Deck overlooking the New River:
During the summer of 2023 I took part in an education abroad trip that explored design in Western Europe. I traveled along side other design students from Landscape Architecture, Industrial Design, and Interior Design as well as 2 Professors. During my time in Europe, I became interested in what makes places desirable and special to people. Understanding how people perceive and experience space will help me better design for people’s wants and needs. Here are a few highlights from the book on Sense of Place I created that encompassed what I had learned on my trip.
Lose design: internship
• Assisted with adjusting the initial concept design and drafting it in AutoCad.
• Drafted initial grading concepts for the client.
• Assisted with design details for a 50% construction document set.
• Rendered a master plan for the county parks and recreation to use at a community park event for feedback.
• Attended client meetings to discuss progress on the design and record feedback.
• Rendered the master plan for the county parks and recreation and internal use
Ellis Barron Park Manassas, VA
Howison Homestead Park Manassas, VA
Hickory Flat Area Park
Cherokee County, GA
• Worked together with landscape architecture and civil engineering interns from the Atlanta, GA office.
• Drafted the concept plans for the community garden and orchard in AutoCad
• Drafted initial grading concepts for the community garden and orchard for civil engineers to further develop.
