Jennifer Birkeland

Jennifer Birkeland is a licensed landscape architect in the state of New York, a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and a LEED accredited professional. She is the co-founder of the design practice, op-AL, a multidisciplinary studio in Brooklyn, New York, and studies the relationships between optics, landscape and architecture in their work. The office approaches design problems by exploring the oppositions established by the vantage points of our two disciplines of focus, resulting in design solutions that strive to disintegrate the subject-object relationship conventionally established between Landscape + Building. Jennifer has worked with internationally renowned offices such as West 8, OLIN, and Ken Smith Workshop.

Education

• Master Harvard University Graduate School of Design (2009 — 2011)
• BS California Polytechnic State University - Pomona (2002 — 2006)

Selected Publications

• 2021 “Expanding the Virtual Classroom” with Dr. Steven Handel - Upcoming Landscape Research Record
• 2021 “New Agronon A Domestic Reverie on Food and High-Density City” -Upcoming Melbourne Design Week National Gallery of Victoria with Jonathan A Scelsa
• 2020 “The Next Urban H2Order / Fuel Cell Futurism” Blind Peer Review Selected Journal Article, with Jonathan A. Scelsa Journal of Architectural Education, 74:1

Awards & Honors

• 2021. CSI Research Fellow, Landscape Architecture Foundation. Study of the Cornell Tech Campus with James Corner Field Operations
• 2019. Office of the Vice-Provost for Academic Innovation, Cornell University. Center for Teaching Innovation Grant
• 2018. The American Academy in Rome Prize. Mark Hampton Award in Design with Jonathan A Scelsa.