jessica M. henson, RLA, ASLA, AICP
Partner
Jessica is a Partner at OLIN where she leads the Los Angeles Studio and directs planning and design projects that seek to create socially and environmentally resilient infrastructure including the Los Angeles County LA River Master Plan and the Sepulveda Basin Vision Plan. Her other significant projects include the reimagination of the Truman Presidential Library and Museum Grounds, the Colburn School of Dance, Chicago’s Willis Tower Roof Park, the new U.S. Embassies in London and Brasilia, the O’Hare Global Terminal, and the SELA Cultural Center.
Jessica’s work explores the relationships between hydrological, cultural, and social contexts. Specifically, she explores how landscape architects can create anticipatory design solutions that create more equitable communities in both urban and rural settings and respond to issues relating to flooding and water resources. In her design, teaching, and research she seeks to broaden the scope of the profession by thinking holistically about the places we live, why we live there, and the environmental, economic, and social effects of our settlement patterns. She leads the OLIN Labs @Scale project and is the author of “Wet + Dry: Rethinking the Mississippi River Cross-Section,” a study on Upper Mississippi communities exploring the relationships between income, topography, and flooding along the river.
Jessica is a registered landscape architect and certified planner. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania School of Design where she won the Laurie D. Olin Award and a Bachelor of Architecture with a minor in structural engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Jessica has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where she also served as the Undergraduate Programs Chair in the Department of Landscape Architecture. She is currently an Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of Southern California where she teaches the Master of Landscape Architecture Urban Design Studio in the School of Architecture.