Judith Heintz MLA '78

Prior to starting her own practice in 1985, Judith Heintz worked for the fledgling Central Park Conservancy where she, with 3 colleagues, prepared the plan to guide future projects and operations the Park, published by MIT Press in 1987 as Rebuilding Central Park:  A Management and Restoration Plan.  Intentionally not called a Master Plan, the plan was conceived to be flexible, to respond to new social and cultural needs, new or evolving ecologies, and changing resources.

Working within various organization structures (Judith Heintz, ASLA, Heintz/Ruddick Associates, JHLA, WRT and sassafras55), she has worked on many projects at a variety scales: from regional, city-wide, and local to interventions on an intimate micro scale.

Using a process developed over many years her design goal is to create connections – between places, people, and periods of time – within an existing landscape, bringing out or enhancing qualities that are already perceptible just under the surface.  In both public and private projects collaboration with the user/client means that the work recedes as the client settles in.  The landscape seems inevitable and right, the product of gradual evolution, a place where things can still change and grow through time.

In addition to her Master of Landscape Architecture from the GSD, Judith received a BSLA from the Ohio State University (summa cum laude) and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University GSAPP.