Eric Tamulonis, ASLA, LEED AP, joined OLIN as a Partner in September of 2016. We sat down with him to hear what makes him tick and what his vision is for his new chapter with OLIN.
Tell our friends a bit about yourself:
After graduating from Penn State University with a Bachelor of Science in landscape architecture I began work in Philadelphia at a small architecture office where I became immersed in multidisciplinary work. Shifting gears after professional licensure, I joined what was then Hanna/Olin, in search of broader horizons. During that period I worked on the open space system of Playa Vista in Los Angeles, construction of the New York Public Library’s Fifth Avenue Terrace, and corporate research campuses for IBM and AT&T.
My work on Playa Vista sparked my interest in the city-shaping role of the public realm. I later shifted to WRT where I had the opportunity to explore large scale open space, in both cities and academic and cultural campuses. This led me to work on park projects across the country at various scales including municipal parks and park systems, state and national parks, as well as college and school campuses. Among this work are two of the country’s largest new municipal park projects, the Parklands of Floyds Fork in Louisville KY, and Red Mountain Park in Birmingham, AL.
Many may not have been aware that you already worked at OLIN during your career.
After exploring public open spaces from site to city-and county-wide contexts, I became interested in how OLIN approaches scale and whether there might be a fit with the scope and scale of my thinking. As we talked it became apparent there was a great fit with OLIN’s increasing interest and accomplishments at large scale, including issues of equity and green infrastructure that align with my focus. My goal is to continue expanding and extending the scale of OLIN’s stellar portfolio of site-scaled public space work.
What has kept you busy since you’ve joined us, and what will you be working on in the coming year and beyond?
My focus has been on honing and extending OLIN’s public realm portfolio – although my interests still include private sector, institutional and academic landscapes, This enables me to bring to my new position at OLIN my past project experience and my interest in all facets of public parks. I continue to pursue my interests in meta-park work. This includes my role in organizations such as my board directorship in the City Parks Alliance, the Pennsylvania Urban Park and Recreation Alliance, and World Urban Parks, and chairmanship of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society’s Design and Horticultural Advisory Committee. I will continue to contribute articles on the role and future of parks in our society, and to teach and lecture on the subject.
Among other pursuits here at OLIN, I have been immersed in our design competition entry with Allied Works Architects, for the United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens in London. I have also been able to apply my past experience in botanical garden planning, assisting my partner Richard Roark in the recent award of the master plan commission for Muriel Selby Gardens in Sarasota FL.