Stephen Sears

Assistant Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture

Research Interests

Sears maintains an agenda of practice that includes the potential of marginal and contested urban territories, techniques in new media, and the value of the vernacular-cultural midwestern region.

His initiatives have led to creative works about Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, Buenos Aries, Puebla and Rome, and numerous rural territories in the Midwest's post-agrarian vernacular landscape. His recently edited volume, Round Barns Projected, features student design proposals for a historic experimental agricultural site.

Education

2006	Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design (MLAUD), with Distinction, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
1992	Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture, Purdue University

Professional Experience

2007-present	Assistant Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2007-present	sHH Research, Urbana IL - Principal
2006-2007	Senior Lecturer, Department of Landscape Architecture, Cornell University
2005	Studio Instructor, Landscape Architecture Section, Harvard GSD Career Discovery Program
2003-2004	Adjunct Professor and Thesis Advisor, Woodbury University
2002	Visiting Professor, American Landscape Academy in France
2001-2002	hybrid, San Diego, CA—Co-founder, Curator
2000-present	Land and Work Co. —Principal
1990-1999	Carol R. Johnson Associates, Inc, Cambridge, MA.—Associate
1989	Benjamin Thompson & Associates Inc, Cambridge, MA—Grand Central District Team

Courses Taught at the University of Illinois

LA 233	Foundation Design Studio (2007-2010)
LA 281	Design Communication (2008-2009)
LA 335	Community and Open Design Studio (2011)
LA 336/438	Vertical Workshops: Digital Media and the Hypernarrative Landscape \| RE-IMAGinING [xxxSITExxx] 5th and Hill, Champaign, Illinois (2008) Round Barns \| SITE, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Experiments About Abundance, Past + Future Utility and Collaboration (2009) That Place by the Thing- Time-Based Narratives about the Potential of a Marginal Metropolitan Territory (2011)
LA 427	American Vernacular Cultural Landscape Seminar (2010-2011)
LA 501	Theory and Practice Seminar: A Taxonomic Cycle for Designers

Projects, Competitions, Exhibitions, and Media

2008	Department of Landscape Architecture Accreditation Exhibition, coordinator, Temple Hoyne Buell Gallery, University of Illinois, Champaign IL
2004-2006	Studioworks, F04,SP05,SP06, Gund Hall Gallery, Harvard Graduate School of Design
2003	Urban Discourse San Diego, CA Designed and curated the Woodbury University Student and Faculty Exhibition, in conjunction with the AIA National convention.
2003	Peninsula Europe New York, NY Designed and co-curated exhibition in collaboration with artists Helen and Newton Harrison for the Ronald Feldman Fine Art gallery.
	Woodbury University San Diego, CA Designed and curated school-wide student exhibition on the occasion of the national AIA conference in San Diego.
2002	Three Rivers: The Low Ground. For Kasteel Groenevald, Baarn,The Netherlands. Art / design charrette collaboration with Helen and Newton Harrison, Harrison Studio, hybrid
	Land and Work, paintings, hybrid
	02-02-02, photography and group exhibit curator, hybrid
	Pines in Rain, video and still image installation, Art Produce Pedestrian Gallery
	Building ID, The Nature of Being in Service, four channel multi-media installation, hybrid
	Obscura Camera, photography, Flux Gallery
	Township: Chapter One, multi-media, hybrid
2001	Figure Ground, photography, hybrid
	Ed Ruscha-Alex Katz, and Richard Serra: Weights and Measures Drawings. Gallery of the American Academy in Rome. Installation and design consultant.
2000	Fine Art Fellow's Exhibition, media paintings and video installation, American Academy in Rome Straordinari Cortili Esposizione, video installation, Rome, Italy: Jury Prize

Awards and Honors

2011	Excellence in Teaching, The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA)
2010	Creative Research Award: That Place by the Thing-, College of Fine and Applied Arts
2009	UIUC Scholar's Travel Fund
2008-2011	List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent multiple times
2008	Wadsworth Endowment Grant; Re-Casting Marginal Landscapes \| The Center for Imaginative Urban mapping, First Steps
2008	Creative Research Award: Revealing Value in Marginalized Urban Landscapes, College of Fine and Applied Arts
2007	FAA Special Grant: Assembling projects from Puebla design studio
2003	Chaumont sur Loire Garden Festival 13th Annual Competition Chaumont sur Loire, France Conservatoire International des Parcs et Jardins et du Paysage Ferme du Chateau Competition theme:Chaos; Order and Confusion into the Garden. Jury selected garden design, The Atom and The Universe. Unbuilt project.
2002	Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Design Award for Searles Science Center, Bowdoin College (CRJA)
2000	American Institute of Architects (AIA) New York Housing Juried Design Award for Chamberlain Hall, Bowdoin College (CRJA)
1999-2000	Rome Prize: Prince Charitable Trusts Fellowship in Landscape Architecture, Rome, Italy American Academy in Rome, eleven-month residency fellowship. Focus of the fellowship was a project entitled, The Worth of the Working Landscape, a collection of studies examining vernacular design within the agriculture and infrastructure of the rural landscape.
1992	American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS). First Place, National Energy Management Institute (NEMI), International Student Design Competition.