Mentorship, opportunity and changing the status quo.

The statistics are staggering. While 55% of MLA/BLA graduates are women, only 12-15% are represented in the top tier of professional leadership. Sadly, this is very often the norm in many industries. Yet, compounding existing cultural inequities, design professions have historically been highly competitive environments, with grueling hours that are the antithesis of work/life balance driving many women to leave the profession when starting families. This deep history of inequality (and subsequent leakage) has served to plague the advancement of diverse leadership within the profession, stifling a broader set of ideas and values that would expand how landscape architecture impacts the communities we build in.

Image: the Vela project

As the leader of a women-owned landscape practice, who has 25 years of experience operating within the status quo, I consciously made the decision to look “under the hood” and change the nature of practice when I launched Mantle in 2018. Since day one, we have been committed to mentorship and opportunity, in order to help foster a generation of confident landscape designers, architects, and project managers who have the skills to lead with new ideas, take on challenging technical situations, and change business as usual.

While there are numerous resources discussing the importance of mentorship, within a practice, I believe it needs to be coupled with opportunity. The opportunity to be pushed outside your comfort zone, to take risks without fear of failure, and the chance to learn each and every day by being given a wide range of things to work on. Post-graduation, many starting their career lose confidence when faced with the gap in their technical and operational knowledge. It is our job to build skill in a positive and supportive environment.

Hannah Chako, Sr. Designer at Mantle, shared that the firms’ approach has set her up for success by giving her the tools, support and information she needs to try new things on her own.

“The confidence I have gained during my first year at Mantle is a factor of the balance of freedom and support afforded by the small, collaborative office environment. As a young designer, I value my colleagues’ trust in me to rise to the occasion when presented with a new task or responsibility as well as their generosity in sharing their time, experience and feedback. I am encouraged to bring my ideas to the table in all design phases, from sketching concept plans, to designing site elements, to figuring out construction details and putting together submittals.”

At Mantle, mentorship and opportunity are explicit, each employee has a development plan designed to build skills, provide new opportunity, and encourage professional development in the broadest sense – and yes, that includes learning something outside the traditional confines of landscape architecture such as an art or public policy class. The bottom line - what you want is important to the firm and I believe this commitment cultivates a thriving office culture and shines through in the work we do.