Shauna Gillies-Smith, FASLA, MAUD, BARCH, Hon. BSA, is the founding principal of GROUND and personally oversees the design direction of all the firm's projects. Trained first as an architect and urban designer, her shift to landscape practice was motivated by the desire to reveal the potentials of surprise and pleasure in the urban realm.
Shauna's landscapes play a protagonist role in the experience of the city - creating unexpected moments of joy and engagement that craft the stage for the drama of urban life. The work strives to balance careful detailing and execution with comfort and openness in use, fully believing that urban landscapes need the dynamic participation of the public to be successful.
Active in both professional and academic spheres, Shauna has taught landscape architecture design studios and technical courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, RISD, UBC, RPI and Tulane. She received a MAUD degree from Harvard's GSD, an M.Arch from the University of British Columbia, and a BA (Econ) from Queen's University.
Previously Shauna sat on the Board of the Directors of the Boston Society of Architects and the Advisory Board of the Design Industry Group of Massachusetts. She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as ABX, the national ASLA conference, and ULI; and has played an active role on numerous design juries. She has also held the roles of Co-chair of the Urban Design Committee at the BSA, and both Contributing Editor and Editorial Board Member of Architecture Boston Magazine. This past year Shauna was inducted as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and was recognized with Honorary Membership to the Boston Society of Architects.
Shauna has been honored with numerous design awards and in a prior phase of life, Shauna was a bicycle racer.