Boston, MA

MASS is seeking a full-time Landscape Designer to join our team in Boston, MA

The landscape is our most honest and unrelenting keeper of our mutual histories, whether logged in seasons, generations, or millenia. The landscape does not exist in a post-truth world, it is an undeniable material register.  Without learning to read these embedded histories, they remain hidden, keeping sometimes revelatory, and sometimes terrible secrets. If we begin to observe and uncover these histories whether geologic, ecologic, or human, we can use this record to hold ourselves accountable to an abundant, shared future.

We are at a pivotal point in our society that calls for heightened attention toward the transformative impact of monuments and memorials. Worldwide, memory and history in built form—memorials, monuments, museums, street names, plaques, historic preservation markers—carry a responsibility to communicate complex histories and provide spaces, sometimes for healing, sometimes for celebration. The construction of public memory lends weight to particular narratives, bringing us to ask: Who or what is deemed important? Whose voices are we hearing, and who is left out?

In 2020, we established the Public Memory and Memorials Lab (PMML) at MASS, an initiative that advances research, training, and built work around a central thesis: spatializing memory can heal us and inspire collective action for generations to come.

THE POSITION: Landscape Designer for Public Memory and Memorials Lab

We are looking for a curious self-motivated learner, who is passionate about the importance of revealing histories that have been obscured in the past for the benefit of future generations. This person will work collaboratively with our interdisciplinary memorials team to engage partners and communities in conversations around how to best remember, represent and refine. You will propose, test and  refine design ideas with your team, help develop construction documents which clearly and professionally translate design intentions into buildable language, and seek unique methods of impact along the way.  Initiative and adaptability are essential qualities for success in this role.  We are constantly seeking to improve the way we work as well as the quality of work we produce, and this position offers great potential for candidates who want to grow with our organization.

If you are interested in joining the conversation or learning more about how we do this, please apply for one of our open positions.

Project Roles:  You will attend to deep & collaborative design work from narrative development, concept manifestation, schematic design, design development, and construction document phases of work.  Your work will ideally be based in the Boston Office and  focus on our Public Memory and Memorials portfolio, but may also support other landscape work in our public space and conservation portfolios, and often projects will contain various aspects of these topics.

HOW YOU WORK

• You love imagining the role a landscape designer can take in building a more beautiful, equitable, flourishing world through great design.
• You have some experience and a strong or growing skill set that you are interested in applying to PMML work.

• You take initiative and responsibility for your work, manage yourself with humility, and are willing to ask for help when needed.

• You are committed to working in the landscape team and contributing positively to the global office culture.

• You celebrate the input of others and know dialogue is critical to design rigor both in the studio and the field.

• You are committed  to applying the MASS methodology and supporting high project standards while maintaining flexibility and humility toward the clients and communities we serve.

EXPERIENCE + SKILLS

• Demonstrated willingness to explore unknown histories of systems, structures, people, and places impacted by the built environment
• Skills in concept-driven form generation and representation, an appreciation for landscape research,  an understanding of landscape construction materials and processes, or a special affinity for any one of these
• Committed to applying the MASS methodology and enforcing high project standards  with a strong work ethic and commitment
• 0-5 years of related design and project-based experience, have a professional landscape degree, and if you have a license, wonderful!
• Proficiency in Adobe Suite, Revit, AutoCad and Rhino. Lumion is a plus.

You have specialized skills in these areas would supplement application:

• Low-carbon design, carbon sequestration and biodiversity analytics
• Ecology, conservation and landscape restoration
• Arborist, horticulturist or other certifications 
• Construction documentation

HOW TO APPLY

Interested candidates should submit all application materials through the SlideRoom portal.

Please be prepared to include or present the following in your application/interview:

• Short Answers Questions
• Resume
• Portfolio of design work (include clear descriptions of your role and responsibilities on each project)
• References (At least 2)

At MASS Design Group we want people to be afforded the ability to do public interest work as a career and offer competitive salaries, health insurance, retirement plans as well as the opportunity to work with lighthouse organizations on seminal projects that promote justice and human dignity. For this role, salary determinations will be commensurate with experience.

With over 200 employees from almost a dozen countries, MASS lives our belief that only a diverse staff from widely varied cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds is properly equipped to tackle complex challenges in our communities. We aspire to create a more inclusive design profession and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. 

Qualified candidates should submit all application materials through the SlideRoom portal. Please, no phone calls or recruiting agencies. We will be in touch with next steps once your application has been reviewed.

Open