"My first trip for the year was out to Denver to join the Land 8x8 Lightning Talk. There was an amazing range of speakers that reflected the diversity of practice, projects and design thinking–very innovative. I was so inspired by Kathryn Finnigan’s presentation. Kathryn is a graduate student in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado in Denver and the 2022 LAF National graduate Olmsted Scholar. In her 8 minute presentation, Neuro-Inclusive Spaces, Acoustically and Sensorially Supportive Landscapes, she explained the important design considerations for people who identify as neurodivergent. Her vision will transform spaces for so many throughout our society and it highlights, yet again, how landscape architects are uniquely qualified to solve many of our biggest social challenges."
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- Torey Carter-Conneen, ASLA CEO
EDUCATION
BS | Cal Poly Humboldt
Natural Resource Planning and Interpretation
Fall 2012
MLA I CU Denver
Summer 2023
"Katie Finnigan has been an exceptional student in my theory and research methods courses. She is a very critical thinker, but also exceedingly thoughtful and empathetic, in particular if it comes to the human experience of place and landscape. Her ideas are highly original, and she is driven by a strong ethos that foregrounds landscape as something that is central to human culture and to the individual ability to grow as human beings and build community. While she is very concerned with the “big topics”, such as equity or climate change, she does not just see them as large-scale planning and policy issues, but is thinking deeply how those affect communities and individuals in place."
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-Associate Professor Joern Langhorst
