About

Studio Kongsgaard is a design practice known for methodological innovation in landscape architecture and urbanism. Our work responds to the spatial and systemic challenge of urban and environmental transformation as cities and regions adapt to climate change. We partner with land trusts, landscape conservancies, cities, and governments on projects that mediate across scales from the bioregion to the site-level. Our work is holistic, charting a coherent arc from research to design to implementation.

Approach

The studio integrates transdisciplinary expertise with civic engagement to design unique and enduring spaces. Scientific understandings of how places change over time guide our work. As landscapes evolve beyond their historic limits, the question of if, when, and how to best intervene is critical to effective management. In this regard, the conservation and preservation of landscapes deemed culturally or ecologically significant is a notable aspect of our design practice.

Leadership

Helen Kongsgaard leads the practice and typically serves as Principal Investigator for transdisciplinary research projects. Trained in design and within the emergent field of climate adaptation, she frames design problems that contend with the dynamics of cities and landscapes. Helen brings her experience leading consultation with public agencies to each project that the studio engages. She holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts from St. John’s College.

Services

Geospatial Analytics
Landscape Architecture
Conservation Strategy
Resource Stewardship
Scenario Planning
Urban Design

Contact

Email , Instagram ↗

Inquiries

Share new project inquiries, potential collaborations, or media requests. ↗

Visit

Receive an invitation to join a studio visit or walking tour to see in-progress work. ↗

Read our Substack newsletter on creative inquiry in design practice. ↗

KONGSGAARD / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Projects

Practice

PLUM ISLAND MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Resource Stewardship

Plum Island, Massachusetts (2019)

Plum Island is a barrier beach island in Massachusetts named after the beach plum thickets that grow abundantly in its sand dunes. As the ancestral homeland, N’Dakinna, of the Pennacook, Abenaki, and Wabanaki peoples, it sustained cyclical patterns of inhabitation, seasonally, for millennia. Subsequent colonial land use profoundly transformed the landscape into a managed agricultural resource, dramatically altering its hydrology. As the region urbanized, early conservationists protected significant habitats. Today, Plum Island’s diverse habitats are valued as a refuge for migratory shorebirds. Recent efforts to restore the hydrological function of the adjacent marsh have improved its ecological resilience. Nonetheless, the site remains at risk within future climate scenarios. This study establishes a vision for the management of the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in service of biological diversity. It draws on long-term ecological research to guide the management of priority habitats, natural processes, and recreation. It also considers design frameworks responsive to emergent scientific uncertainties.

Location: Essex County, Massachusetts
Site Area: 4,727 acres

DUNE RESTORATION PILOT PROJECT

Field Experiment

Fragaria Chiloensis, Beach Strawberry (2025)

Abbotts Lagoon, California (Planet, 2026)

Dynamic coastal landscapes, such as sandy beaches and dune ecosystems, challenge landscape architects to contend with nuanced understandings of how places change over time. As beaches move, seasonally and decadally, subject to wave energy, shorelines migrate seaward and landward, shifting in elevation. The increased frequency and magnitude of recent coastal storm events has eroded shores across California. The restoration of coastal landscapes merits a design approach to grasp coastal change. This study leverages novel tools and computational methods borrowed from coastal science to understand where coastal restoration actions will be most impactful now and in the future. In dialogue with agency partners, it pilots techniques for the restoration of beaches, dunes, and wetlands along the California coast. It focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of strategically sited pilot projects where field experiments hold potential to inform the design of future restoration efforts.

Location: Marin County, California
Site Area: 255 acres

STINSON BEACH ADAPTATION STRATEGY

Scenario Planning

Bolinas Lagoon, California (Planet, 2026)

Stinson Beach, California, sits on sandy spit shaped by waves into an embayment. The ancestral home of the Coast Miwok, the land was claimed in the Mexican land grant era. It later became a seasonal coastal retreat known as Willow Camp. As a settlement sprang up after San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, the land was subdivided and built upon. Portions of the beach were set aside for public use, passing through county, state, and federal hands. A series of coastal storm events over the past half-century precipitated the construction of ever more permanent infrastructure. Today, Stinson Beach is a popular, white-sand swimming beach. It is also subject to episodic beach loss, arguably exacerbated by the frequency and magnitude of recent storm events. As sea levels rise, the town’s beachfront homes are among the most vulnerable in the county. This study puts the region’s urbanization into dialogue with its environmental dynamics. It informs a climate adaptation strategy grounded in an understanding of the site’s geomorphic formation and its performance under future conditions.

Location: Marin County, California
Site Area: 570 acres

NAPA VALLEY CONSERVATION STRATEGY

Geospatial Analytics

Napa Valley, California (Google Earth, 2026)

Snell Valley, California (2022)

A model of agricultural preservation, the Napa Valley emerged over the past half-century as a world-renowned viticultural region. In 1968, the Napa Valley Agricultural Preserve established agriculture and open space as the highest and best use of fertile land on the valley floor. As the first zoning ordinance of its kind in the United States, it protected the valley from development as neighboring regions rapidly urbanized. Many of its oak savannas, mixed conifer forests, freshwater wetlands, and tidal marshes were subsequently conserved. Today, lands held in trust, in conservation easements, or as public parklands contribute to the region’s ecological resilience at the landscape scale. They also present risks with the increasing prevalence of wildfire. In this context, this study supports the strategic acquisition and management of land in Napa County, California. In dialogue with local partners, it considers the efficacy of innovative landscape management practices from prescribed fire to carefully timed dry-season grazing that bring the region’s agrarian heritage into service of its ecological resilience.

Location: Napa County, California
Site Area: 96,000 acres

SAN FRANCISCO WATERFRONT

Urban Design

San Francisco, California (Iwan Baan, 2025)

The San Francisco Waterfront, today a scenic promenade, took shape over centuries, revealing shifts in migration, technology, culture, and urbanization. Today, it is the subject of renewed attention as sea level rise puts aging maritime infastructure at risk. This study leverages quantitative data to examine patterns of visitor use at the interface of land and water. Aggregating anonymous GPS data from user activities, it considers how visitors move through (and pause within) existing public spaces. In dialogue with agency partners, it also draws on data from high-precision counters installed along the waterfront to distinguish pedestrian, cyclist, and watercraft use. The work supports ongoing efforts to retrofit the waterfront to address seismic risks and present and future flood hazards through a complementary focus on visitor use. As the Port of San Francisco embarks on an ambitous program of waterfront resilience, this study aims to inform an integrated strategy for public access across jurisdictional boundaries.

Location: San Francisco, California
Site Area: 50 acres

FORT POINT WATERFRONT

Landscape Architecture

San Francisco, California (2025)

San Francisco, California (2024)

The Fort Point Waterfront is a national historic site at the southern anchorage of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. A granite sea wall, amongst the oldest coastal fortifications in the region, hardens the water’s edge. The fort itself, a brick stronghold constructed to defend the entrance to the San Francisco Bay in the Gold Rush era, sits below the bridge. Above it, a promontory offers dramatic views of the entrance to the bay. This design study negotiates access and security for facilities at the base of the bridge. It preserves the sea wall, rebuilt from the original granite blocks, while improving access to the fort, now a museum. Where feasible, it also considers the restoration of historic views and circulation patterns along the waterfront. While conserving the ground plane and exposing a distinctive sedimentary rock, it provides modern visitor amenities.

Location: San Francisco, California
Site Area: 2.5 acres

Top