Sam is a geodesign expert focused on the urban landscape. He co-founded Urban Ecosystems in 2012 and has served as its Director of Operations since the company started. Urban Ecosystems is a landscape architecture and planning practice focused on the intersection of green and grey infrastructure.  Sam’s professional work is focused on site planning, low impact development and resilient urban design.  His built work and master planning activities layer ecological thinking onto the need for practical and feasible landscape projects.

Sam holds Masters degrees in both landscape architecture and urban planning and is a professor at the University of Minnesota. Sam conducts research and teaches coursework focused on geospatial analysis, landscape performance metrics, and urban visualization techniques.  As part of this work he designs and facilitates planning charettes, visioning sessions, and virtual reality demonstrations as part of an iterative design and planning process.

Sam works with Future iQ to develop new visioning and public engagement tools that will help cities and local organizations envisage potential redevelopments which will drive economic development and improve the spatial character of key urban nodes.