Laurie Olin (born 1938,
Marshfield, Wisconsin) is an American
landscape architect. He has worked on
landscape design projects at diverse scales, from private residential gardens to public parks and corporate/museum campus plans.
After graduating he worked for offices in Seattle, New York City, and London. In 1976 he became a professor for the
University of Pennsylvania, where he offered courses on the design of environments. In 1986 he became head chair of the landscape architecture program at
Harvard University. After serving as chair at Harvard, Olin returned to University of Pennsylvania where he continues to be Practice Professor of Landscape Architecture.
Olin has written widely on the history and theory of architecture and landscape, receiving the Bradford Williams medal for best writing on Landscape Architecture. Olin co-authored La Foce: A Garden and Landscape in Tuscany, which includes a historical essay, along with photographs, sketches, and a critical analysis of the early 20th-century garden in Italy. Across the Open Field (2000), is both a memoir and series of essays on the evolution of the English landscape. He is also the author of Transforming the Commonplace (1996) and Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers (2006, with
Witold Rybczynski), on
James Deering's mansion in
Coconut Grove, Florida.
^Vizcaya : an American villa and its makers (Book, 2007). [WorldCat.org].
OCLC77535401.
^La Foce : a garden and landscape in Tuscany (Book, 2001). [WorldCat.org]. 2007-08-05.
OCLC46473963.
^Across the open field : essays drawn from English landscapes (Book, 2000). [WorldCat.org].
OCLC41380362.
^Transforming the common place : selections from Laurie Olin's sketchbooks. (Book, 1996). [WorldCat.org].
OCLC36963741.
^Breath on the mirror; Seattle's Skid Road community. (Book, 1972). [WorldCat.org].
OCLC347999.
Dowdell, Jennifer. "Washington Monument, Security Built In: An Underground Center Nixed as Construction begins on Olin Partnership's Design" Landscape Architecture 2004.
Dvořák, Petula. "Washington Monument Subtly Fortified" Washington Post 2005.