Charles Anderson has been a practicing landscape architect for over 25 years and has elevated his profession by crafting award-winning projects that are recognized for integrating art, nature and community needs. As founder and Principal of Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture, his evolving body of work focuses on the transformative processes of ecological systems, and has drawn critical acclaim from a diverse group of independent critics and design juries, not only for its efficacy in achieving broader environmental or civic goals, but also for its formal elegance and inspired use of materials. His large-scale public works, including Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, the Anchorage Museum of History and Art in Alaska, Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in Washington, and Arthur Ross Terrace in Manhattan, have poetically revealed astronomical phenomena, the erosive shifting of tides, the ephemeral qualities of light, and the subtle traits of plant communities that signal diversity, resiliency and at times, devastation.

Anderson’s early works were instrumental in stimulating regional and national interest in sustainability, native plants and urban ecology at a time when those terms were still relatively unknown. His local projects have restored native habitats, cleansed toxic soils, and introduced regenerative native planting schemes to degraded sites. Many of his projects have served as learning and teaching environments, while he has enthusiastically volunteered his time and talent encouraging others to become active advocates for landscape change in the Pacific Northwest. Anderson has consistently worked to press the discipline beyond its borders toward an enlightened vision of the landscape architect as ecologist, philosopher and civic leader. He remains a firm believer in the necessity of multidisciplinary design collaboration even though the process can be extremely difficult.

Artist’s Statement:
"The image represents the resolving of conflict between self-determination and the importance of mentor. Charles Anderson first started working with Richard Haag at the advent of computer aided design technology. Then and even today, Haag views computers as a “necessity” that he’d rather avoid, while Anderson embraces the computer as a tool that is as useful as any drafting tool, on par with trace paper. The digital portrait of Haag is the ultimate balance of “natures.” Anderson used smaller and smaller images of some of his projects, that were created on his tablet computer, also known in his studio as “oh those drawings.” The reduced images eventually become pixels that form the likeness of Haag."