Kyle Zick has been practicing landscape architecture for more than 30 years, with expertise in design for historic sites, passive parks, trails, ecologically sensitive sites, and recreational facilities.

Kyle completed a management plan for the trees of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace parks in Boston & Brookline for the Emerald Necklace Conservancy. KZLA led a team of consultants that assessed the historic trees, woodlands, and riparian corridors, and then outlined their management for the future. This master plan has
guided numerous planting and pruning projects in which KZLA has played a lead role.

Kyle has also recently managed the rehabilitation of two of Boston’s most significant public landscapes: Franklin Park and Jamaica Pond Park. While the improvements at Franklin Park focused on select pathways and park entrances, the project at Jamaica
Pond was a wholesale rehabilitation of pathways, site amenities, signage, Olmsted-designed planting plans, as well as invasive species management. The work at these parks built upon the urban tree management plan which KZLA developed for Frederick Law Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace in Boston. This master plan is a new
vision for the urban forest over the entire 900-acre National Register of Historic Places site.

For Emmanuel College, a new 19-story dormitory—Julie hall—has been built as the new residential hub of the campus. Plaza spaces filled with seating will foster social interaction, while being flexible for day to day use, outdoor classes, special events and move in and move out. The landscape also includes an extensive green roof and
raised vegetable beds to support urban agriculture.

Kyle recently completed the landscape improvement plans for “The Prado” in Boston’s North End. This urban mall was designed in the 1930s by noted landscape architect, Arthur Shurcliff, to memorialize Boston’s patriot Paul Revere. The plan investigated materials conservation, bronze restoration, drainage improvements, and replacement of fountain equipment.

 

For the National Park Service, Kyle created a master plan for George W. Childs Park at Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. This plan respected and restored the original Civilian Conservation Corps-era design while introducing new protective measures for the hemlock ravine and cold water creek. To offset heavy visitation, the
woodland soils were de-compacted, understory was re-established and exclusion fencing was installed to re-direct visitors.

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​Lectures and Panels:

​• “Landscape Planning and Preservation - Modern Non-invasive Techniques and Methods” Massachusetts Historic Preservation Conference, 2019

• “Outdoor Accessibility Standards and the Design of Unpaved Trails” National Park Service Minute Man National Historical Park Trails Conference, 2018 Boston Society of Landscape Architects, Juror for Design Awards, 2016

• “Opening Conservation Lands to People with Disabilities” Massachusetts Land Conservation Conference, 2016

• “Landscape Architecture Storytelling” University of Rhode Island, 2015

• “Climate Change a Call for Action” Preservation Massachusetts, 2015
 

• Boston Society of Landscape Architects, Juror for Design Awards, 2011

• Congress for New Urbanism Summit, 2011 “Green Infrastructure”

 

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Awards:

• Boston Society of Landscape Architects, Phillips Square Tactical Plaza, Chinatown, Boston, Massachusetts, Merit Award, 2020

• Boston Preservation Alliance, Stewardship Award, Franklin Park, 2019

• Massachusetts Historical Commission, Preservation Award for Rehabilitation & Restoration, Granary Burying Grounds Entrance Gate and Fence, 2016

• Boston Society of Landscape Architects, Emerald Necklace Tree Inventory, Conditions Assessment and Management Plan, Boston & Brookline, Massachusetts, Honor Award, 2015

• Boston Society of Landscape Architects, Powers Farm Master Plan, Randolph, Massachusetts, Merit Award, 2013
 

• Boston Society of Landscape Architects, 80 William Street, Wellesley, Massachusetts, Merit Award, 2013

• Designing the Parks, Merit Award from the National Park Service, Minute Man National Historical Park, 2010

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