Background

Land+ is founded by Karen Steenhoudt. When Karen lived New Mexico in her early twenties, she started to explore the expansive and diverse lands of the Southwest. Later, with her family, each vacation they visited national parks where they hiked remote glaciers, deserts, and mountains. These intense experiences in nature formed the roots for her career in landscape architecture and a dedication to nature conservation.

Karen is a licensed Landscape Architect with M.S. degrees in Landscape Architecture (Temple University), Environmental Engineering (University of New Mexico) and Bio-engineering (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium). She teaches landscape design at the Barnes Horticulture certificate program at Saint Joseph’s University. She is a board member at the Delaware Botanic Gardens.

Philosophy

Our projects foster environmental citizenship. The goal is to have people embrace a land ethic where humans are a member of the ecosystem and therefore willing to support a sustainable future. We aim to create environments where people interact with nature, enjoy the immersing experience and in those moments are learning about the benefits of sustainable landscapes.

‘Acts of creation are ordinarily reserved for gods and poets, but humbler folk may circumvent this restriction if they know how. To plant a pine, for example, one need to be neither god nor poet; one need only own a shovel.’ - Aldo Leopold in A sand county almanac