GROUNDBREAKER 60+ countries, hundreds of projects, one amazing career Kona Gray, FASLA, PLA, rarely needs an introduction. Current president of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and a principal at EDSA, he has built an incredible 39-year career. Synkd recently chatted with Gray about his background, inspirations, and projects. Read the article below, edited for clarity and length, and listen to the full podcast at https://youtu.be/Y2n4oFYvgKQ.
Kona Gray
n By Christine Menapace, Editor The beginning is a good place to start. You grew up in Liberia, which is intriguing. Can you tell us about your childhood? I feel very lucky to have had the experience of growing up in Liberia. I was born in the states. My parents immigrated to the US in the 1960s for university and both my sister and I were born in Cambridge, MA. We went to Seattle for my parents’ graduate studies, then we moved back to Liberia. That was an amazing experience. So from the early ’70s to around 1980, I spent in Africa. It was some of the most impactful years of my life in terms of aligning me with what I do now, what I love, being in the environment, and designing for people.
Gray as a child with his family in Seattle, 1970
48 SYNKD Winter 2025
Your dad is an architect and you first majored in fine art, then architecture, and eventually landed on landscape architecture (LA). How did that kind of come to be and what clicked with LA? Yeah, it certainly wasn’t a straight shot for me. I think that is true of many people. You find your passion as life evolves and unfolds. My dad is actually 85 years old, still an architect, still practicing in Liberia. He is definitely someone I admire tremendously for his grit and tenacity. One big inspiration for me in the world of art and creativity is Sidney Poitier. And Sidney Poitier and my father have a lot in common. Just that ‘nothing will stop me’ kind of drive—but with the care for doing it the right way. My dad didn’t encourage me to be an architect. He encouraged me to focus on what makes me happy, what I love, and to certainly always do the right thing. I grew up in a strong religious family with a lot of focus on the golden rule and just being a good person. I started drawing at an early age because my dad would bring home his work. It’s an architecture thing, they just don’t know when to stop designing! And so at our kitchen table, he would be drawing, I would be drawing, and I would show him my drawings to get his input. It was really a great relationship to design from the get-go. I went to Boston Architectural College (BAC) and that was very rigorous. You are required to work during the day to attain practical hours, then all your classes and studios are in the evenings. In my studio courses, there was a focus on the object of a building. But I kept adding
stuff to my renderings like people, cars. And my professor, I remember this vividly, was like, ‘I want to see your architecture.’ And I was like, ‘No, that’s not real! It doesn’t exist like that.’ So I’m sure I frustrated the youknow-what out of him. But there was that little lightbulb that popped for me. Because it was going to take me so long to finish BAC, I worked my way back to Georgia and thought I’d go to Georgia Tech, but their architecture courses didn’t align with my timing. Then I was with a friend from the University of Georgia, just hanging out, and she says, ‘Well, Georgia has a program called landscape architecture. Maybe you would consider that?’ I was like, ‘What the hell is that?’ No idea. Then I sat down with the program chair. He looked at me, started checking boxes and says, ‘I’ll have you in and out of here in a year and a half.’ I was like, ‘sold!’ Still to this day, I’m so grateful. Things happen for a reason, little by little. And I give a lot of credit to my friend. Over those early years, I learned how to go with the universe, ride the waves, just let life take you where you should go. Speaking of where to go, you’ve been to 30+ countries. Is there a culture/country you feel is pushing the boundaries of LA? Yeah, there are so many. I’m fortunate to be a part of a global design company. Sometimes I pinch myself because I’m on a plane going somewhere to design with clients and communities in far places. I’ve been really mesmerized by our planet and how wonderful it is. All over the world are these unique landscapes and we’ve worked in pretty much every part of it.
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