Seattle’s Waterfront Park is populated with an astounding number of plants: 124,000. Richard Hartlage of Land Morphology developed the immersive planting design in collaboration with Field Operations, the project’s lead landscape architect and urban planner. Richard will present how the plants are organized and maintained across 20 acres and 26 city blocks. Each planting zone tells a unique story rooted in local history and ecology and exemplifies how thoughtful planting design creates spaces that connect the community with nature, enhance biodiversity and serve as models for sustainable urban development.

Speaker’s bio: 

Richard Hartlage is the CEO and founding partner of the Seattle-based landscape architectural firm Land Morphology. His award-winning designs incorporate sophisticated horticulture and historical knowledge to heighten the human experience of the natural world. Richard’s passion for horticulture, cultivated while working in public gardens and estates and managing landscape architecture studios, is applied to each design from the conceptual phase through development of maintenance protocol and beyond.  

The firm’s portfolio includes the Leach Botanical Garden in Portland, the Herb and Vegetable Garden at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, Chihuly Garden and Glass, and numerous private residential landscapes and commercial projects across eight states. Richard has contributed to six books on horticulture and landscape architecture, including “The Authentic Garden: Naturalistic and Contemporary Planting design in Landscape Architecture.” He received the American Horticultural Society’s Great American Gardeners Award in 2018 and the Mrs. Oakleigh Thorne Medal from the Garden Club of America in 2025.