Currently a Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Architecture and Design, Brad Collett has well over a decade of professional experience that he shares with his students. His talk titled “Decision Points” was centered around his professional development from choosing to study Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design at the University of Tennessee in 2001 to getting his Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture at Ohio State University in 2004 to working at Edward Durrell Stone Jr. & Associates (EDSA) until 2011 to becoming a professor at UT, the path of a professional career is never straight forward.
Brad’s professional career has not only led him to author multiple research and design publications like ‘Low Impact Development: Opportunities for the PlanET Region’, Hydro LIT with the Smart Communities Initiative, and the Tennessee River Studio in partnership with the Governor’s Chair, but has also led him to honored as a Fulbright Scholar in Slovenia during the summer of 2016. A quote by Louis Pasteur he stated in his talk really exemplifies his career so far, “Chance favors the prepared mind”. His love of the landscape and the ecology within it and his willingness to take on opportunities that have come his way has led for to take on the new challenge of starting something new in the TN River Valley. His past studio, The Tennessee River Studio, in partnership with the Governor’s Chair Phil Enquist of SOM, has jumped started the initiative to establish a complete Tennessee River Trail that, like the Atlanta Beltline, may bring extensive social, ecological, and economic development to the TN River Valley and beyond. This is an ongoing initiative that I personally have had the opportunity to work on and will definitely be following long after my graduation in 2018.
Image Credit: Taken of Brad Collett by Paul Bamson
ARCHITECTURE | LANDSCAPE | DESIGN 