News

Azzurra Cox (MLA ’16) named National Olmsted Scholar

Azzurra Cox (MLA ’16) has been one of two 2016 National Olmsted Scholars. The award is the highest honor in the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Olmsted Scholars Program, the premier national award program for landscape architecture students.

Now in its ninth year, the Olmsted Scholars Program recognizes and supports students with exceptional leadership potential who are using ideas, influence, communication, service and leadership to advance sustainable planning and design and foster human and societal benefits.

Cox is interested in the power of landscapes to shape collective narratives; and in landscape architecture as an engaged, political discipline. She has researched the links between landscape, politics, and culture in multiple contexts, including the Lake Titicaca watershed and post‐industrial American cities, and aspires to expand the narratives that designers consider part of the conversation. After completing her B.A. in social studies at Harvard College, Cox’s professional experiences included behavioral‐economics research in Chennai, India; education‐reform grantmaking at Carnegie Corporation of New York; and editorial work at The New Press. She hopes to continue working across disciplines to design powerful spatial experiences, encourage environmental stewardship, and foster meaningful engagement with a place and fellow citizens.