About the studio

Studio Zewde is a vibrant landscape design, urban design, and public art practice. Named to the Architectural Digest AD100, an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York, and one of ArchDaily’s Best New Practices, the studio’s work is lauded for its design methodology that syncs site interpretation and narrative with a dedication to the craft of construction. The firm’s fifteen employees have multi-disciplinary backgrounds in landscape design, city planning, urban design, sociology, statistics, community organizing, public art, and beyond. Studio Zewde is devoted to creating enduring places where people belong.

Sara Zewde Bio

Studio Zewde is led by Founding Principal, Sara Zewde. She brings years of experience leading complex design processes across the Americas, with a design approach that works explicitly to illuminate the distinct cultural and ecological qualities of a place.

Sara is Associate Professor of Practice at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Hebbert Award for Contribution to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT and the Silberburg Memorial Award for Urban Design.

Most recently, Sara was named to the 2024 TIME 100 Next and *Wallpaper’s 300 People Shaping Creative America. She has also been named the 2014 National Olmsted Scholar by the Landscape Architecture Foundation, a 2016 Artist-in-Residence at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and in 2020, was named a United States Artists Fellow. Sara is a registered landscape architect in multiple states, and holds a master’s of landscape architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a master’s of city planning from MIT, and a BA in sociology and statistics from Boston University. Sara is also currently writing a book on her research retracing Frederick Law Olmsted’s journeys through the Slave South which will be published by Simon & Shuster.

Published on October 13, 2025