Richard Weller (1963 -2025)

Richard J. Weller (1963 -2025) was Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture at the Weitzman School of Design and Affiliated Faculty of The McHarg Center.

Over 30 years of practice he worked simultaneously as an academic and a consultant specializing in the formative stages of projects ranging across all scales. Weller’s work was frequently awarded in international design competitions and exhibited in galleries such as the Guggenheim in New York, the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the MAXXI Gallery in Rome, the Canadian Design Museum in Toronto and the Chinese Academy of Fine Art in Beijing.

He published six books and well over 100 single-authored academic papers, book chapters and articles on the theory and practice of landscape architecture and urbanism. He was also the Creative Director of the interdisciplinary journal of landscape architecture LA+.

Weller’s last research concerned global flashpoints between biodiversity and urban growth. This research was documented in web-based platforms titled ‘The World Park Project’, ‘The Hotspot Cities Project’ and the ‘Atlas for the End of the World’. This work was widely published, exhibited and reviewed.

Weller was an emeritus board member of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) in Washington DC and was inducted into the Academy of Fellows of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) in 2020.

Weller taught advanced design studios and subjects in the history and theory of landscape architecture and urbanism. In 2012 he received a national (Australian) teaching award, and in both 2017 and 2018 was voted by the Design Intelligence Survey as one of North America’s “most admired” teachers.