Susannah Drake

Susannah Churchill Drake FAIA FASLA 

Drake combines practice, teaching, and research in a design practice that focuses on environmental justice, climate adaptation, infrastructure, and campus design. She is the founder of the award-winning multidisciplinary design firm DLANDstudio and was until recently a principal at Sasaki and an adjunct associate professor at the Irwin Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union. She is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.  

Susannah was recognized as an Architectural League ‘Emerging Voice’ and was also an AIA Young Architect Award recipient. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Museum.  Through a pioneering methodology of partnering with communities on grants from organizations including the Graham Foundation, J.M. Kaplan Foundation, James Marston Fitch Foundation, AIA, NOAA, EPA, NEIWPCC, NYSDEC, and NYSCA she enables environmental justice and climate resilience.  

Susannah connects art and science through her work, her communication methods, and her relationships across disciplines and geographies. She lectures globally about resilient urban design and has taught at leading design schools across the US. Her award-winning work is consistently at the forefront of innovation in urban ecological infrastructure.  

Her work titled “From Redlining to Blue Zoning: Equity and Environmental Risk, Liberty City, Miami 2100,” detailing the relationship of historically marginalized black populations of Miami with sea level rise was displayed at the 2023 Venice Biennale. Along with numerous articles and book chapters, her first book “Gowanus Sponge Park,” published by Park Books, was released in January of 2025. She is developing the comprehensive site comprehensive plan for Taliesin West in Scottsdale Arizona. In addition to practice, Susannah servs on the board of the Regional Plan Association and is Chair of the Board of the Clyfford Still Museum.  Susannah earned MArch and MLA degrees from the Harvard GSD and a BA in Art History and Studio Art from Dartmouth College.