Job Description

Olson Kundig is a design practice founded on the ideas that buildings can serve as a bridge between nature, culture and people, and that inspiring surroundings have a positive effect on people’s lives. The firm’s work can be found across the globe, with projects as wide-ranging as huts to high rises, homes—often for art collectors—to academic, cultural and civic projects, museums and exhibition design, places of worship, creative production, urban design, and interior design.

We’re looking for a talented Landscape Architectural Designer II to join Olson Kundig and help shape exceptional outdoor spaces. In this role, you’ll bring creative vision to projects ranging from gardens and parks to commercial and residential landscapes. Working closely with project managers, design leads, and multidisciplinary teams, you’ll transform concepts into functional, beautiful designs that meet aesthetic, environmental, and budgetary goals.

Primary Responsibilities:

Design, Planning, and Communications:

• Analyzes architectural design and site influences for the planning of exterior spaces.
• Assists in the production of design concepts, including diagrams, plans, sections, elevations, and 3D models in support of concept design.
• Independently applies landscape architectural concepts and designs.
• Prepares site/zoning analysis, research, design studies, and documentation support as required by project managers.
• Prepare presentations for subconsultants and clients to facilitate external project communications. Utilizes office standards and reviews own work before sending.
• Supports and collaborates with project team members in coordinating tasks, timelines, and deliverables. Understands the larger project goals and delegates to junior team members accordingly.
• Participate in project meetings, documenting discussions, and preparing action items.
• Contributes ideas, solutions, and deliverables in team and project environments and does not hesitate to daylight any missing documents or tasks necessary for the work at hand.
• Conducts material and planting research to evolve conceptual ideas to feasible design proposals.

Documentation and Specification:

• Self-driven to seek and study potential technical design solutions to share with the larger project team. Works rigorously through drawing and modeling supplementing with verbal communication as necessary.
• Reviews own design work for quality and completeness, compiles in a digital format for review by Senior team members.
• Translate Schematic Design Intent into technical documentation sets, utilizing office standards and resources and knowing when to seek assistance and oversight from Senior team members and the Digital Technology team.
• Prepares construction documents according to office standards, including but not limited to site plans, material plans, planting plans, grading plans, sections and details. Shows initiative in pushing drawings forward to provide senior team members documents to redline.
• Coordinates with project consultants via email, markups and drawing transmittals to keep the project moving as outlined by the project schedule and targeted deliverables. Keeps team members and project managers in the loop while doing so.
• Provides basic technical guidance and drawing redlines to less experienced landscape architectural team members, particularly Junior Landscape Designers and Landscape Designer I’s.

Construction Administration:

• With guidance from the project manager, manages both independent and collaborative tasks necessitated by the construction administration process.

Education/Skills/Experience:

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in landscape architecture or architecture. Dual degrees and experience preferred.
• Minimum 4-6 years of post-grad related professional experience or similar role with equivalent work experience
• Licensed or in pursuit of acquiring licensure as a Landscape Architect.
• Proficiency in Bluebeam Revu/Studio, ArcGIS, Grasshopper, AI workflows, Microsoft Office, ERP (Deltek Vision),
• Intermediate proficiency in Rhino 3D, Adobe Creative Suite, Revit (BIM), AutoCAD, digital sketching apps, Enscape, and Digital File Organization
• Clear verbal, written, and visual communication to express design ideas. An ideal candidate can communicate just as clearly with hand-drawn drawings as with digital tools.
• Ability curate technical details that tell a design story and convey a general understanding of landscape architectural components in a project.
• Intermediate proficiency of the principles of landscape design, including spatial organization, circulation, grading, and planting design
• Intermediate proficiency in horticultural knowledge of at least one major ecology (temperate, desert, tropical, etc.)
• Ability to collaborate effectively with an interdisciplinary design team of architects, engineers, planners, and other professionals involved in a project.
• Experience working on High-End Residential, Hospitality (Hotels, F&B, and Resorts), and Workplace, as well as a variety of project scales from Master Planning to Detail design
• Membership in professional landscape architectural organizations such as ASLA, IFLA, ULI, or similar is preferred.

What can you expect from us?

• A creative work environment and colleagues who are collaborative, creative, and challenging
• Opportunity to grow professionally
• Check our culture page to learn about life at Olson Kundig

In addition to a dynamic and creative culture, Olson Kundig provides a generous benefits package that includes 16 days of paid time off, paid holidays, a health plan, a 401 (k) match, bonuses, profit-sharing plans for qualified positions, a monthly travel subsidy for public transportation, and more.
As a firm, we are committed to pay practices that are fair, competitive, and reflect internal pay equity. At the time of posting this job, the hiring range for this position in Seattle is between $77,000-$90,000 annually. Final salary decisions are based on the extent and relevance of the candidate’s education and experience, considering internal equity and external market factors.

All applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship and must already possess long-term work authorization.