» University of Virginia, Master of Landscape Architecture, 2017
» Boston Architectural College, Boston MA: MLA Coursework 2012- 2014
» Oberlin College, Oberlin OH: Bachelor of Arts in Biology, 2009
» Toole Design Group, Boston MA: Landscape designer/landscape architect. January 2020-August 2022.
» STIMSON Landscape Architects, Cambridge MA: Landscape Designer. June 2018-December 2020.
» Stoss Landscape Urbanism, Boston MA: Landscape designer. February-May 2018
» Mahan Rykiel Associa tes, Baltimore MD: Design intern and research assistant. June-August 2016.
» Arquitectura Agronomia, Barcelona, Spain: Design intern and research assistant. June-August 2015.
» Critical Planning Journal, vol. 25 ‘Social Justice and Planning’: “An Unfinished Survey: Unrestrooms and Exhibition Design as Research,” 2019.
» Materials and Applications: honorable mention for “Simple Made-up Machines”, as Bad Little Brother with Ben Barsotti Scott, Peggy Noland. 2018.
» Front/Space Galler y, Kansas City KS: Unrestrooms, as Bad Little Brother with Ben Barsotti Scott. March 2018.
» Open Issues Discussions on Student Publishing, Har vard GSD: Panelist April, 2017
» Lunch Journal + Snack pamphlet publications, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA: Editor/advising editor. August 2015-May 2017.
» Boston Architectural College: Guest critic for site planning studios 2018-present.
» SUNY ESF: Guest critic for founda tion landscape architecture studios, 2020-present.
» Maryland Institute College of Art: Guest presenter for “Contemporary Architectural Criticism and Theory”, 2022.
» Rhode Island School of Design: Guest critic for “Queer Space” seminar, 2018.
» University of Virginia: Guest critic for foundation landscape architecture studio, 2017.
» University of Virginia School of Architecture Admissions Committee. 2017.
» University of Virginia School of Architecture: Teaching Assistant “History of Landscape Design” 2015-2017.
» Boston ArtScience Prize, Boston MA: Educator and mentor to Boston high school students in design, arts, and science program. 2013-2014.
» Hawthorne Valley Farm, Ghent, NY: Visiting students program. 2008, 2009, 2010.
» Upswing Farm: diversified organic vegetable CSA, September-December 2022.
» Vanguarden CSA, Dover, MA: diversified organic vegetable CSA, 2012, 2021, 2022.
» Allandale Farm, Boston, MA: organic CSA and plant nursery September 2010-August 2012.
» Green Mountain Club, Waterbury Center, VT: backcountry trail construction and maintenance. 2007.
» Cultural Assets Inventor y and Mapping Project, Albuquerque, NM: Research assistant, cultural assets survey April-August 2014.
» Shark Bay Ecosystem Research Project, Western Australia: Research assistant. January 2007.
» ‘The Big Parade’ (Oberlin, OH), and ‘Wake Up the Earth’ (Boston, MA): festival organizing, community arts education, construction. 2006-2014.
» Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutem: lead soloist (“Anima”). 2013 and 2015.
» Night Song, Cambridge MA: Soloist and ensemble member: Medieval, Renaissance and contemporary vocal ensemble. 2011-2014.
» Northern Harmony: Vocalist and violinist, US and Europe tour. 2010.
» Renewal Chorus: Ensemble member (vocalist, violinist), and coordinator, annual tours 2008-2012.
» English (fluent), French (proficient), Spanish (beginner-intermediate)
Recent projects, including site and corridor design, active transportation planning and design, vision planning, trail design and public space pilot installations. Common elements include community-driven design and planning processes, green infrastructure, and accessibility.
This comprehensive plan for Albany’s historic Lincoln Park was developed in close partnership with the Albany Department of Planning and Development, and with critical guidance from community members. Located just steps from the state capital complex, Lincoln Park is Albany’s primary outdoor recreation resource. With its unique swimming pool, extensive athletic fields, walking trails, wooded areas, and panoramic views of the city, this remarkable public landscape is an invaluable asset to the city.
The plan focuses on better integrating the park into its urban surroundings–enhancing the safety, visibility and vibrancy of park gateways for better neighborhood access and cultural events, as well as improving sports and play facilities, creating accessible and intuitive pedestrian circulation, and highlighting the site’s natural history.
The Lincoln Park Master Plan received a 2020 Merit Award in Planning from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. Implementation of the plan began in 2021.
Top: View across the Bowl with stormwater swale in foreground
Bottom: Concept plan for Lincoln Park showing the major program areas
Reimagine Russell Boulevard was a joint planning and visioning effort by the City of Davis, UC Davis, and Yolo County to improve multimodal traffic operations and public landscapes along a three mile corridor of Russell Boulevard, a key eastwest arterial connecting the UC Davis main campus to downtown Davis.
The vision plan is structured around three major areas of design–multimodal mobility, green infrastructure, and placemaking– emphasizing a holistic approach to roadway safety and an interest in integrating this major roadway into the cultural life of the city and university.
Toole Design led the project overall, as well as the multimodal mobility and green infrastructure components of the project, and worked closely with placemaking subconsultants to develop aesthetic principles for the corridor. Toole staff also led community meetings and produced the final report documents.
View the full Vision Plan
Top: Proposed cross-section alternative for Russell Blvd. east of Rte. 113
Bottom: Discussion board from virtual community workshop
Brookline, MA
Proposed typical cross-section with two way bike path and pedestrian path
Olmsted’s 1896 design for Beacon Street in Brookline, Massachusetts included the components of a true multimodal boulevard: sidewalks, “wheelways” for carriages, streetcar tracks, and a “bridleway” (or bridle path) for horseback riding. Today, the former bridleway space is used for parking along the centerrunning MBTA Green Line tracks. In the late 2010s, local planners and active transportation advocates proposed restoring the bridle path for biking, walking, and rolling, using Olmsted’s original concept to strengthen their case for a consistent, high-comfort active transportation facility on Beacon Street.
Toole Design completed the feasibility study for this new facility, and produced concept plans for the full corridor and key intersections. The initial proposal emphasizes the cultural significance of Beacon Street, and highlights opportunities to strengthen social and commercial nodes with the design of the new path. In addition, Toole’s concept complements the recommendations of the Brookline Urban Forest Climate Resiliency Master Plan (2021), and addresses possibilities for green infrastructure along the corridor. Consultation with stakeholders, advocacy groups, and community members was key to developing concept alternatives. In 2022, Toole Design was contracted by the Town of Brookline to complete the first phase of design.
Additional project information and the Existing Conditions Analysis Memorandum can be viewed here.
Top: Sample plan for alternative with angled parking and shared use path
Bottom: Existing conditions include abundant underutilized parking (January 2021)
Well-established alternative to owning a car. Requires dedicated parking spaces.
Prominent, distinctive signage to point users to hub mobility options available at this location.
Maintain existing bike share for convenient, affordable, on-demand bike access for short trips through a multi-city network of stations.
Designated space for ride-hail and other vehicles to reduce travel lane blockage.
Low-cost improvements to existing plaza space around the bike share, such as new planters, and a solar smart bench.
The solar bench provides wifi charging outlets, information on the GoHubs! project, and space for local event announcements
The Maverick Square GoHub! is located on the corner of Maverick Street and Henry Street, near the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. Maverick Square is a vibrant commercial area located around Maverick Station, a major transit hub. Maverick Station is a stop on the MBTA Blue Line, as well as bus routes 114, 116, 117, 120, and 121. This Gateway GoHub! features bike share, two car share spaces on Henry Street, pick-up and drop-off on Henry Street and Maverick Square, a solar powered smart bench with device charging, wifi, and an e-ink screen, bike parking, and real-time transit schedule Information (located inside Maverick Station.) Just south of the GoHub! is an additional bike share station, food truck parking area, and a cab stand.
GoHubs!
Boston, MA
GoHubs! from concept plans, to informational signage, to installation and public engagement Images: Toole Design Group/Julie Shapiro/Stephanie Weyer/Odera Cole
with Toole Design, 2020-2022.
Boston’s mobility hubs pilot project, branded “GoHubs!” includes eight micromobility sites in East Boston, meant to support neighborhood mobility networks with first/last mile connections and alternatives to private car use for local trips.
These eight locations vary in size and complexity, from the major “gateway” hub at Maverick Square, which connects to a major commuter train station and bus terminal, to the small neighborhood hubs which conveniently co-locate bikeshare and carshare stations.
Toole staff guided hub site selection, led the design process, supported the city in procurement and public outreach, and supervised implementation. In addition, Toole provided the City with a comprehensive Operations and Maintenance Manual, a living document intended to evolve with the GoHubs! System.
Top: East Boston pilot GoHubs! locations
Bottom: Day Square GoHub! installed with
With over 70 acres of woods, fields, waterways, and farmland, Tivoli Lake Preserve is New York State’s third largest urban nature preserve, and an irreplaceable resource for outdoor recreation in Albany.
STIMSON worked with the City of Albany and Friends of Tivoli Lake Preserve and Farm to implement the first phase of the 2014 Visioning Plan: realigning and reconstructing the major preserve trails for accessibility and erosion reduction. The first new trails and boardwalks were constructed in 2020-2021.
Alternative: Shared Use Path
A shared use path can be constructed along the south side of Queen City Park Road such that the roadway width is narrowed by about 6 feet, and the sidewalk is essentially widened to the width of a shared use path, which has a minimum width of 10 feet.
This alternative would not result in any additional paved area, but would require relocating catch basins, and possibly associate d reconstruction of the stormwater collection system on the south side of this street.
Alternative: Separated Bicycle Lanes
In this alternative, Queen City Park Road would be widened to a total width of 36 feet to provide room for 2-way separated bicycle lanes on the north side of the street. This will also potentially require reconstruction of stormwater infrastructure, and examination of possible wetland impacts along the north side of the street.
S E G M E N T B
This segment extends from the Hannaford Plaza entrance at Queen City Park Road to the intersection of the Champlain Parkway Shared Use Path, just west of the intersection with Pine Street. This segment has a continuous sidewalk on the south side of Queen City Park Road and no dedicated bicycle facilities. There is no crosswalk, nor accessible curb ramp connecting the sidewalk to the Champlain Parkway Path.
DESIGN CONSIDERAT ONS
TOOLE DESIGN | 17
SEGMENT LENGTH 1,120 feet
TRAFF C VOLUME 5,900 ADT
POSTED SPEED 25 mph
RIGHT-OF-WAY WIDTH 49.5 ft +/-
PEDESTRIAN FACILITIES Sidewalk on south side
BICYCLE FACILITIES Shoulders of approximately 4 feet
Public input for this segment expressed significant concerns at the intersection of Pine Street and Queen City Park Road due to sight distance and grades.
The City of South Burlington noted that the drainage infrastructure along the sides of this segment are in poor condition, and may need to be replaced if any proposed work involves relocation of catch basins.
Alternative: Shared Use Path
A shared use path can be constructed along the south side of Queen City Park Road such that the roadway width is narrowed by about 6 feet, and the sidewalk is essentially widened to the width of a shared use path, which has a minimum width of 10 feet.
This alternative would not result in any additional paved area, but would require relocating catch basins, and possibly associate d reconstruction of the stormwater collection system on the south side of this street.
Alternative: Separated Bicycle Lanes
Ex st ng Width and Configuration
While the width varies somewhat along the length of this segment, the typical width of Queen City Park Road is 30 feet from curb to curb, and a 5 foot
Clockwise from top left:
Mystic River to Minuteman Path: proposed intersection redesign and path crossing Marblehead Former Railroad Right of Way: project extents and key intervention areas
Queen City Park Road: proposed cross section alternatives
Neponset Valley Parkway: conducting site inventory and analysis in-field
In this alternative, Queen City Park Road would be widened to a total width of 36 feet to provide room for 2-way separated bicycle lanes on the north side of the street. This will also potentially require reconstruction of stormwater infrastructure, and examination of possible wetland impacts along the north
Marblehead Former Railroad Right of Way (Toole Design) 2020
Marblehead, MA
Final Plan and project information
Queen City Park Road and Austin Drive Bike and Pedestrian Scoping Study
(Toole Design) 2021-2022
South Burlington and Burlington, VT
Project information and documents
Mystic River to Minuteman Path (Toole Design) 2022
Arlington, MA
Project information and final Feasibility Study
Neponset Valley Parkway Hyde Park to Blue Hills Connection (Toole Design)
2022
Boston, Milton, and Canton, MA
Project information
Massachusetts Shared Streets and Spaces Program (Toole Design) 2020-2021
Harwich and Milton, MA
URBAN DESIGN and PARKS:
FWHA Guide for Maintaining Active Transportation Infrastructure for Enhanced Safety, Section 8.6 “Street Trees” pp. 124-131. (Toole Design)
2022
Walkable Urbanism Concept Plan (Toole Design) 2022
Sulphur Springs TX
Downtown Action Plan (Toole Design) 2022
WInchester MA
Lower Locks (Toole Design) 2020
Lowell MA
York Park Competition Toronto CAN (STIMSON) 2018
Toronto CAN
RESIDENTIAL:
Private residences: site and garden design, 2018-2019
Westport CT, Brookline MA
Human Crossing A “Museum of the Environment”
Dew Traveling Studio, 2016 “Biophobia: Smithsonian National Museum of the Environment”
Critic: Dr. Shiqiao Li
From project statement:
The structure maintains the footprint of the site (at the northeast corner of the National Mall), but it is curved upward into a giant cup or shell, an autonomous watershed. The simple warping of the surface effects a total transformation of the interior space, and the creation of massive portals to the site that make the entry ceremonial, alien, and awesome. This strategy comments on L’Enfant’s faith in the plan as determinant of social form, since the museum is only manifest in section: in its warping, torqueing entirety.
It is a “museum of the environment” in two senses, or rather, at two scales. First, it concentrates and supports the local ecological communities of the mid-Atlantic US, with particular focus on birds and their habitat. Second, it is a microcosm of ecological-climatic zones, as first described in European scholarship by Alexander von Humboldt (1767-1835). The museum is Humboldt’s famous mountain diagram turned inside out, with stratified ecological zones at its different “altitudes”—from the pond and wetland, up through forest, ecotone, scrub, and grass, to high nesting cliffs. The continuous surface of the museum’s interior/top is modified to move water at different rates through these zones, to support the various plant communities at different levels of the watershed. ... To maintain a welcoming and safe habitat for birds, human access to the site is limited. Visitors may cross the space on two pathways (recalling analogous wildlife crossings built in human environments), or observe it from the indoor spaces within the museum’s shell.
...
Human Crossing is anti-nostalgic (legibly hybrid, engineered, a collaboration between human knowledge and natural processes) but it does not deny the excitement, the appeal, the magic of immersion in natural spaces, of close encounters with animals and plants. It is a place where, with clear eyes, we can go to celebrate lives unlike our own.
December 2016
FIELD VEGETATION
CATALOG of SOIL TYPES
GROUND SURFACE EFFECTS of PLANTS
PREDICTED MICROBIAL DISTRIBUTION
WORM’S EYE VIEW of the HERBACEOUS LAYER (MILTON AIRFIELD), SURFACE EFFECTS of PLANTS, and SUBSURFACE IMPLICATIONS for MICROBIAL ABUNDANCE and ACTIVITY (from parametric model/simulation in progress: final model will account for all six above- and belowground plant operations)
litter deposition interception shading distribution and density of microbial populations cumulative surface effects (shading, interception, litter deposition) as determined by plant species distribution
MOISTURE
POROSITY
SOM METABOLISM
TEMPERATURE
Typical species, Milton Airfield: Purpletop (Tridens flavus), Passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), Mullein (Verbascum spp)
MICROBES
SOIL CHARACTERISTICS AFFECTED BY PLANT LIFE CYCLES
Surveillance Practices Studio, 2015
Critic: Brian Osborn
From project statement:
... In any site, plants shape ground conditions over time, modifying soil structure and chemistry through a suite of life cycle processes. Urban sites provide abundant and varied opportunities to test the functionality of herbaceous plants as soil-builders and space-creators in cities. Recognizing the distinctive constraints and resources of urbanized lands, this project explores the possibility of a ‘climax’ herbaceous community to be integrated into urban sites, building soil and habitat, and offering a dynamic, low-maintenance alternative or complement to the goal of the urban forest.
A large body of ecological research has shown the range of ways in which plants change soil quality over time, through life cycle and succession processes. This study seeks to deploy the soil-building functionality of specific plant species to facilitate the formation of organic soil on urbanized sites.
There is a movement today to promote appreciation of the opportunistic urban plant species formerly considered weeds, and to move away from ecological restoration as a goal for urbanized land. The current project explores an extension of this ethic, advocating not only for a new aesthetic in terms of species, but in terms of planted form, or plant habit.... Herbaceous plant communities act to build soil capital, and could help to establish a soil resource for continued herbaceous growth or later tree planting, urban agriculture, or other landscape uses.
A. Hypothetical development of a planting ‘port’ or micro-site over two generations of plants
B. Micro-site development could be accelerated by nearby facilitator port for additional inputs of water, organic carbon, nutrients
matter
Two planted openings in cracked asphalt
Conyzacanadensis Achillea millefolium Juncus tenuis Panicum dichotomiflorum
tolerance, high capacity for groundwater uptake.
Other species: Typhalatifolia
This research provides preliminary indications for the design (form, elements) of an urban planting intervention. Further research is of course needed, but the hope is that this project gives a framework for a new model of urban planting: an attitude of partnership with opportunistic species, and an intelligent matching of tools to problems and resources within an ethic of legible, deliberate form-making.
Characteristics: Usually grasses, but other spreading/ rhizomatous groundcovers may work as well.
1st generation decays: significant addition of organic matter, increased soil porosity
December 2015
2nd generation: may include different species, more robust individuals, greater diversity
Facilitator port increases moisture, nutrients in layers below asphalt, could accelerate accumulation of organic soil
As Bad Little Brother with Ben Barsotti Scott, 2018
Front/Space is pleased to announce Unrestrooms: an unfinished survey of gender and public space, an exhibition by Bad Little Brother.
Gender is done in the bathroom. Public restrooms are sites of personal and political transformation. Equitable access to restrooms by people of all genders ensures visibility and full participation in democratic society.
Drawing from contemporary queer and feminist theory, Unrestrooms features recent architectural proposals that address the public restroom as a gendered public space. The exhibition features new works by eight emerging designers addressing the public restroom as a site of political resistance by queer, trans, gender non-conforming, and gendered publics. Featured projects range scales from the stall to the city, reimagining the disavowed architectural space of the toilet as a site for subversion, gender creativity, and political coalition-building. Contributors are early-career designers and students from North American schools of design, including Columbia GSAPP, Harvard GSD, University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Virginia, and University of Waterloo.
The exhibition features a site-specific installation by Bad Little Brother, as well as a reading room with resources on gender in architecture and case studies in public restroom design. GLSEN KC, the Kansas City Center for Inclusion and other local LGBTQIA+ organizations will provide information on equitable restroom access and bathroom rights for trans and gender non-conforming users
Dew Traveling Studio, 2016 “Biophobia: Smithsonian National Museum of the Environment”
Critic: Dr. Shiqiao Li
This installation was created for a studio module exploring technologies to classify and organize the non-human world--in this case, Linnean taxonomy. As a sample taxonomy of both natural and unnatural objects, it invites dynamic classification and odd, explicitly subjective categories based on the role these items play in human life. Casting each item in semi-clear glycerin foregrounds the effects of the cataloging process itself: the visual distortion and physical changes to the collection that are caused by this imperfect medium of preservation and display.
From installation notes:
a. Symbionts—fulfilled through collaboration with people (artists’ charcoal, sheet music, worry doll, white wine)
b. Body Builders—help to construct/represent the body-identity (escitalopram, panty hose, nail polish, lipstick)
c. Transporters—facilitate movement, escape, participation (euro coins, compass, ear bud, train ticket, photograph)
d. Companion Species—domesticated aliens (feather from duster, sea sponge, ivy, cane sugar, potting soil, chili powder, baking yeast)
e. Border Guards—purifying agents, defenders of separateness (condom, ant poison, intrauterine device, sunscreen, neosporin, tampon)
f. Power Brokers—energy holders, employable (coal, matches, coffee beans)
g. Aliens—the others, they didn’t vote for this (cicada, freshwater clamshell, fern, shelf fungus, feather, persimmon, wood, lichen, pokeberry, pine resin)
juliana.shapiro@gmail.com
802.338.2343
