Portfolio

Margaret Gallagher

Margaret Gallagher

My passion for the arts, science, community engagement, and early childhood education inspires me to create interactive work that draws attention to subtle evolutions present in the world around us and facilitate lasting connections between people and places

MLA, First Professional

2019-2022

University of Austin, Texas

B.A. Environmental Studies , Global Studies

2011-2015

University of California, Santa Barbara

Contact email: gallagherm08@gmail.com

Experience

Lionheart Places/ Spring 2022 - Present

Landscape Designer and Planner

ARC 308 / Teaching Assistant for Prof. Speck, Fall 2021 + Spring 2022

UTSOA + Building Green Texas  / June-August 2021    Graduate Research Assistant

CAMPBELL LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE / October 2020-May 2021

Landscape Design Intern

Maas Verde + Mollie Gerber Design / 2020-2022

Landscape Maintenance + Installation Crew Member

• Research Team Member, Reclaiming Memories

• ASLA Student Chapter Co-Chair 2020-2021

• Student Representative-UTSOA Coordinating Committee, Graduate Student Council 2020-2021

Skills

Analog: Ceramics, Watercolor, Photography, Sketching

Digital: Adobe Creative Cloud, AutoCad, Rhino, Sketch-Up, Civil 3D, Revit, Microsoft Suite, Lumion, Enscape

Interpersonal: Long-Term Planning, Creative Direction, Communication, Data-Analysis, Problem Solving

Awards

• ULI Hines Student Competition Winner - “The Stack”

• Texas ASLA Student Honor Award - “Enduring Acequias”

• UTSOA 2021-22 Design Excellence Nominee - “In Process”; “Living Wall”

• UTSOA 2021 Design Excellence Winner “Eduring Acequias”

• UTSOA 2020 Design Excellence Winner - “The Case for Flux”

• UTSOA 2021-22 Design Excellence Nominee - “In Process”; “Living Wall”

• Honorable Mention Street and Urban Furniture, 2020 Gaudi Architecture Prize - “Moving in Place”

Professional

La Verde Cultural Trail

Brick and Mortar District, Kyle, TX

Griffith Paseo

Round Rock, TX

I-35 Cap and Stitch

Austin, TX

Creek Show

Austin, TX

LA VERDE CULTURAL TRAIL

Location: Kyle, TX

Client: City of Kyle

Role: Schematic Design, Planting Plan, 3D-Modeling (Rhino), Site Plan Render, Construction Documents

Phase: 95% CD Set

At the core of the 138-acre Brick and Mortar District within the Plum Creek Planned Unit Development, is the La Verde Park and Cultural Trail. The park is a 1.67 acre urban destination surrounded by mixed use development of office, retail, and residential. Connecting the park with an adjacent park space, known as the Heroe’s Memorial, is the 1200’ Cultural Trail. The Cultural Trail prioritizes connection by celebrating the community values that make Kyle special – community, tradition, family and nature. Themed nodes along the trail create moments for education, inspiration and rest for all ages and abilities while utilizing materials (brick, metal) that celebrates Kyle’s history. Along the multi-use urban trail, users are greeted with an ongoing art program, custom lighting, restaurants, interpretation, water features and pedestrian amenities.

Lionheart is leading the master plan, landscape architecture and the entire consultant team for the La Verde Park and Cultural Trail.

Aerial render of Cultural Trail

Image source: Lionheart Places and Design Distill

La Verde Park and Cultural Trail

Image source: Lionheart Places and Design Distill

Character Imagery

Plant Palette

BRICK EXPRESSIONS

Parklet Typology I

Concept Design

Form: modular, outdoor rooms, geometric, linear

Inspiration:

Celebrating Kyle community values, themed gathering spaces, heritage, public art

Illustrative Render

Moments for All Ages & Abilities Gathering Spaces and Public Art Opportunities

Connecting with Nature, Family & Tradition

Parklet Typology II

Parklet Typology III

Monon GreenwayCarmel, IN

Textured Perforate Extrude

Victoria GardensRancho Cucamonga, CA

Xuhui Runway ParkShanghai, China

Glick Peace WalkIndianapolis, IN

La Verde Park

Hays CISD Performing Arts Center

Heroes Memorial Park

GRIFFITH PASEO

Location: Round Rock, TX

Client: City of Round Rock

Role: Schematic Design, Planting Plan, 3D-Modeling (Rhino), Site Plan Render, Construction Documents

Phase: Design Development, 60% CD set

The Griffith Paseo links the roots of the historic downtown to the possibilities of the future. At the physical level, this is the connection of Prete Plaza and the Main Street corridor to the new, modern library. At the conceptual level, the design of the Paseo embraces timeless components of the Round Rock landscape that past, current, and future residents all experience and remixes them with a forward thinking twist. Night sky constellations become ground plane embedded lights that guide visitors through the site. Native flowers are abstracted in the sky as color panels in overhead canopies that are also patterned with forms inspired by the flower seeds. Changeable art nodes, play-friendly chalk boards, and an interactive kiosk all draw visitors through the space and offer chances for a refreshed experience each time. Familyfriendly amenities like shaded seating areas, playful art and materials, drinking fountains and restrooms all provide the opportunity to linger in the space on the way to one of Round Rock’s vibrant retail shops or events.

Paseo

Image source: Lionheart Places and McKinney York

Concept Collage

COLOR SHADE CANOPIES

CANOPY 1 - MEXICAN BUSH SAGE

Bloom-Inspiration

CANOPY 2 - RED YUCCA

Bloom-Color Panel Gradient

Seed-Inspiration

Seed-Laser Cut Panel

Bloom-Inspiration

Bloom-Color Panel Gradient

Seed-Laser Cut Panel

CANOPY 3 - BLUE BONNET

Bloom-Inspiration

Bloom-Color Panel Gradient

Seed-Laser Cut Panel

I-35 CAP & STITCH

Location: Austin, TX

Client: City of Austin

Role: Opportunities and Constraints Analysis, GIS Mapping, Design Narrative and Concept Design, Design Guidelines, Community and Stakeholder Engagement

Phase: Design Guidelines

Lionheart is part of an interdisciplinary team working with the City of Austin and Downtown Austin Alliance to co- create a shared vision for TxDOT’s proposed caps and stitches. The I-35 Cap and Stitch Project first established a set of vision, goals and objectives for the project by working with community members and leaders. Lionheart facilitated community outreach and engagement through online surveys and open houses. Then, mapping and analysis tools were utilized to develop an opportunities and constraints report that informed the concept plan scenarios. Lionheart is currently working on developing a final concept plan with design of the caps and stitches beginning in 2025.

CULTURAL TRAIL TYPICAL CONDITIONS

The East Avenue/Cameron Road Cultural Trail is a corridor-wide program element weaving together art, culture and mobility. Stretching from the northern cap at Airport Road to Lady Bird Lake, the Cultural Trail is a multimodal corridor for residents and visitors alike. Key crossings at the cultural trail are called out in orange, bridging the divide between East and West Austin created by the initial freeway construction.

RESTITCHING THE URBAN FABRIC REPLANTING THE URBAN FOREST

There were once communities that lived on land currently used by I-35 and planned for future expansion. Furthermore, there were cultural connections linking communities on both sides of the current I-35 corridor. How can those communities that are still bere be supported? How can the communities that are gone be commemorated?

This concept “brings back” the ecosystems that would have attracted early residents of Austin -the Edwards Plateau and Blackland Prairie. Austin’s dense urban forest and savannah is an integral part of the city, providing residents with invaluable social, economic and environmental benefits. During the initial phase of community engagement, trees were ranked as the number one amenity by Austin residents, and the City’s Community Tree Priority Map identifies a large discrepancy of tree canopy coverage. East of I-35 has just 22% tree canopy cover, while the west has 78%.

CREEK SHOW PROPOSAL

Location: Austin, Texas

Client: Waterloo Creek Show

Phase: Unbuilt

Mosses, ferns and fungi are among the most ancient species on Earth and are integral to the health of our planet. While often overlooked by those traversing the trails and parks of Austin due to their small size, these plants and fungi play a vital role in our local ecosystems. Mosses and ferns provide important microhabits for other flora and fauna, while fungi aid in the decomposition of plant and animal debris, transforming them into nutrients to be used by plants. The proposed project, “hiddenGenus”, elevates these tiny but mighty living systems found throughout Waller Creek by reimagining them as a larger-than-life sculptures that light the way for visitors to meander through a playful and magical forest full of plants and fungi. Scannable QR codes throughout the installation lead visitors to additional iNaturalist* guides and recorded audio of the greenbelt, amplifying the quiet sounds of the creek. By drastically increasing the size of these local mosses, ferns and fungi, the installation creates the illusion that the visitor has shrunk down in size, and is thus able to appreciate the magic of these species.

*iNaturalist is a plant identification app that is a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society that features guides that help teach about biodiversity around the world.

Collage of the proposal installed along the walkway leading to the 11th St. bridge; collaboration with Aaron Odland and William Harries Graham

Golden Jelly Fungus Tremella mesenterica Genus: Tremella

Angel’s Wings Pleurocybella porrigens Genus: Tsuga Indigo

Fern Pleopeltis polypodioides Genus: Pleopeltis

Star

Silvery bryum Bryum argenteum Genus: Bryum

Broom Moss

Dicranum

Milk Cap Lactarius indigo Genus: Lactarius

Render “Enduring Acequias”

Image source: Margaret Gallagher

El Paso’s Front Porch

The proposed site sits as a void above the 1-10 freeway in El Paso, only a few miles from the US-Mexico border and the Rio Grande river. Defined by political and geologic division, industry has further bisected the space into increasingly smaller fragments. Beginning with the construction of the railroad, which first separated the neighborhoods of El Segundo Barrio, Chihuahuita, and Durangito from Sunset Heights, the construction of 1-10 physically created a new, void space, displacing residents, disconnecting pedestrians and bikers and prioritizing vehicle flow. Coupled with limited green space (the largest park in a 10 mile radius is less that 1.5 acres), the extractive history of the space, first sundered apart by railroads, then freeways, demands a unifying design that prioritizes community gathering, relaxation, and play. The design proposal seeks to reconnect the site with the surrounding neighborhoods and the existing city through a series of front porches and yards that create safe, welcoming space for El Paso residents to come together.

Planting-Plan

Seating - Plan

Seating - Model

Enduring Acequias- The Land Directs the Water and the Water Guides the Land

“Enduring Acequias”, a proposal for a new stadium and park at the former rail yards in downtown Albuquerque, explores the intersection of land ethics and aesthetics to create an oasis for locals and visitors that honors the site’s agriculture history while creating green jobs through urban agriculture and culinary training, remediating the polluted, compacted soil and creating public green space that celebrates the New Mexico United soccer team and what the new stadium means for Albuquerque. Drawing inspiration from acequias, mutually managed water irrigation systems that have functioned in New Mexico and parts of Colorado for almost 300 years, the project shares its title with a book by New Mexican poet, farmer, artist and writer Juan Estevan Arellano that studies how people live with and interact with water in arid landscapes. The site-adjacent neighborhoods of Barelas and Broadway have agricultural origins, with farms developing around the “Acequia Madre de los Barelas” when it was constructed in the 1800s. When the rail yards were built, the acequia was redirected and cut off from the neighborhoods as workers pivoted to industrial jobs. The closure of the railyards in the mid-1900s had devastating effects, and the stadium represents an opportunity for new investment, jobs and opportunities for Barelas and Broadway. At the heart of the design is the desire to connect visitors with the story of water in such a dry space, and water flow guides the forms of the site, from the arroyo at the stadium’s entrance to the more formal, channelized acequia that runs through a water treatment plant on site before being directed into the fields. Large bosques of Cottonwood, Honey mesquite and Pinyon pine filter the water as it flows through the site, and cisterns underneath the parking garages hold rainwater for future use.

Planned Meow Wolf Development

In Process

Cadillac Heights, a neighborhood just south of downtown Dallas, was once a vibrant African-American community that faced unsafe living conditions due to environmentally racist zoning practices by the City of Dallas that placed harmful industry, from lead smelting to animal rendering, directly next to residential homes. These industries, along with illegal dumping and no levee, meant that the soils and water were contaminated, and floodwaters would disperse these contaminants across the neighborhood. Attempts to clean the site or advocate for city services were either prevented or ignored by the city until the early 2000s, when two lawsuits by the law firm of Daniel and Bashara secured buyouts for residents to move. While some residents did choose to remain, most lots have since had their structures demolished, with the few remaining roads and existing trees the only evidence of the historic urban grain. Imagining that this project could be a pilot project for the hypothetical Dallas Department of Care, the proposal centers the community of current and former residents, focusing on the right to return for the former community, the remediation of contaminated soils, and the creation of a new public park. "In Process" imagines a space where landscape and architecture work together to create form that responds to and acknowledges the spatial memory of the land and the community, and slowly rebuilds them. Completed with Narsis Holmes, M. Arch

Design Concepts

Existing Trees

Texas Redbud Cercis canadensis

Saucer Magnolia Magnolia X soulangeana

Historic Urban Grain of Neighborhood Lot Lines

Texas Buckeye Aesculus glabra

Existing tree canopy is supplemented with new plantings

Former roads as framework for primary pathways Urban grain used to bring visitors into open spaces

Pecan Carya illinoinensis Cedar Elm Ulmus crassifolia

Live Oak Quercus virginiana Burr Oak Quercus macrocarpa

Procession

Reflect + Grow

Research

Lo Sagrado/The Sacred Austin, TX

Black Swallowtail , San Jose Cementario I

Image source: Margaret Gallagher

Lo Sagrado / The Sacred

Maestra Marika Alvarado, A Lipan Mescalero Apache medicine woman collaborated with myself and historical preservationist Diana Hernandez on a field study centered around sacred plantings found in San José Cemetery I. This study was documented and organized with an emphasis on plant properties and medicinal uses for these specific specimens, and is included in the current exhibit at the Mexi-Arte museum’s exhibit for Día de los Muertos. The research was also part of Reclaiming Memories fall symposium "The Necropolis Politic / Lo Sagrado”. As the landscape architect and photographer on the team, I documented and identified plants through photography and field studies with Maestra Alvarado.

LIVE OAK Tree of Life

• It was once common practice to plant a young tree in the center of cemetaries.

• Different species can be found amongst the tombstones at San Jose Cementario I, but the Tree of Life” is the only Live Oak

• Planted in San Jose Cementario I when it was founded, the tree symbolizes the connection between life and death, and serves as a reminder of change and growth over time

ASPARAGUS FERN

Helecho Esparrago

• A medicinal herb whose branches are made into a tea for dysentery and pulmonary infections

• The young shoots are edible

BULL NETTLE

Mala Mujer

• Spiny, deep-rooted, herbaceous perennial. The roots are numbing, and can be used for teething.

• It’s presence indicates good soil conditions.

Competition Work

ULI, “The Stack”

Oakland, CA

Render of “The Stack”

Team Lead- Sanket Kamdar

Sophia Aitken

Kent Carlson

Margaret Gallagher

Alay Thakrar

ULI Hines Student Competition 2022 Winners “The Stack”

The Stack is designed to unlock the creative and transformational potential of the site. Knowing that this site is integrated into a multicultural area of high social vulnerability, especially among the Black population, we really wanted to maximize the uses dedicated to serving these communities and provide needed infrastructure for long-term growth and equity. To achieve these goals, The Stack’s design and program is grounded by three key pillars: Health, Culture and Connection.

To promote health and social wellbeing, The Stack provides diverse and richly programmed spaces for outdoor gathering, recreation and sports. The buildings are sited and implement various strategies to help mitigate highway air and noise pollution.

Supporting and expanding Oakland’s strong cultural and community assets is one of the main objectives for this project. The Stack offers a home for the city’s non-profit changemakers to thrive, as well as numerous platforms and opportunities to amplify Oakland’s artistic talent and entrepreneurial enterprise. Home to an established health care sector, skilled workforce, and proximity to international travel and shipping hubs, major employers will be drawn to The Stack’s Class-A offices.

Improving transit connections for all mobility modes is a driving force for the project. Stacking multi-modal transit below the highway, improving city-wide linkage with green street connections, and boldly bridging the highway with a park, The Stack stitches together the various neighborhoods, people, waterfronts and stadium within its reach.

Concept Design

Health: Stacked green infrastructure, open space and highway buffer network

Health: Public open space programming and overstructure park

Concept Framework

Culture: Activity circulation and street

Culture: Stacked cultural districts and primary activity spaces

Connection: Gateway nodes and BART station link

Connection: Stacked multi-modal transit and enhanced highway underpass connections

Underpass connections

Old Oakland BART Station

connectivity

Pedestrian spine

Overpass link

Green infrastructure

Jefferson Square

The Loop Sound buffers

Broadway Transit

Art and Sculpture

Living Wall Living Cube

Render “Living Breezeblocks”

Image source: Margaret Gallagher

Living Breeze Blocks

This project, completed for the UTSOA seminar class «Living Wall» with Prof. Danielle Briscoe, is an exploration in how the material properties of terracotta clay and the form of mid-century modern breezeblocks could come together to create a living wall that hosts moss, ferns and air plants. Terracotta clay is a low fire clay with high porosity, making it ideal as a watering device or container for plants due to its ability to both retain and slowly release water over time. Using a chia pet as my preliminary case study, I experimented with different prototypes before arriving on a hollow, arched breezeblock unit with interior ridging and an opening at the top that allows water to flow through the stacked units before being collected in a cistern at the base of the wall. This wall can be used anywhere where there is excess water to be captured, such as underneath an air conditioning unit capturing condensation, or outside as stormwater cistern. Due to the extreme fluctuations in Texas weather, the wall will be dormant during the winter and summer, and greener and lusher during the fall and spring. Mosses were the primary plant chosen to due their ability to withstand temperature extremes and remain dormant for long periods of time, requiring only a few hours of moisture to return to life.

Plant Palette + Irrigation System

Living Cube

“Living Cube” is an unbuilt proposal that is comprised of a series of trellises, mirrored forms, and excavated crevices within the pavement that reflect and refract the designed landscape around them while acting as a host for vegetative matter. Designed to be installed in a parking lot or other underutilized paved space, the built forms create a distorted image capturing ephemeral moments of light, color, cloud cover and other shifting systems within the landscape and aims to influence public perception about the beauty of urban ecosystems. The installation is designed to be a permanent one, with the understanding that the vegetative matter will shift and grow over time. Instead of relying on an extensive plant palette that requires significant maintenance, the living systems chosen for the “Living Cube” will be a mix of cultivated and ruderal species that grow into themselves and the sculpture.

Living Cube - Experiential Models and Collage

*photographic collaboration with William Harries Graham