Ron Henderson

Office

Room 112, 3410 South State Street

Phone 312.567.3260
rhender1@iit.edu
https://www.lirio.work/

Courses taught

LA 497 The Natural History of Cities
LA 497 Long and Narrow
LA 514 Professional Practice of Landscape Architecture I: Entrepreneurship and Practice
LA 526 Design Media II: Digital Media
LA 545 / 546 Cloud Studio
LA 567 Ecology and Materials Workshop 3: Horticulture and Design

Expertise

Professor Henderson is an international leader in landscape architecture design, history, research, and education who strong advocacy for the profession that has led him to leadership roles in universities, organizations, foundations, and government in North America and Asia. His broad range of current research includes: gardens and contemporary urbanism in China and Japan, indigenous global arboriculture and horticulture practices, botanical drawing, planning and design for education in Haiti, and landscape-based urbanism such as the NSF-funded Driverless City Project. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on landscape architecture and urbanism. He served as director of the IIT Landscape Architecture + Urbanism Program from 2015–2022.

He has held previous appointments at Harvard, Pennsylvania State University, Tsinghua University in China, and Rhode Island School of Design. At Tsinghua, he was part of the inaugural faculty invited to establish a new Department of Landscape Architecture and was also vice-chair and coordinator of the Urban Design Sequence for the English Program, Master of Architecture (EPMA) which was the first program in China to offer an English-language Master of Architecture. He was the first non-Chinese faculty to receive a term appointment at Tsinghua’s School of Architecture.

He is founding principal of LIRIO Landscape Architecture, a professional studio with work in North America, Asia, and Europe. Recent award-winning projects include Gardens of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (U.S.), Elizabethan Theater at Chateau d’Hardelot (France), Blue Sail Headquarters (China), Jiu Zhou Qing Yan Roof Garden at the China Pavilion Expo 2010 (China), United States National Arboretum (U.S.), Dumbarton Oaks (U.S.), CityWalk Providence (U.S.), and Memorial to the Abolition of the Slave Trade (France). Current work includes collaborations in Shanghai (China), Buffalo (U.S.), Chicago (U.S.), Cap-Haitian (Haiti), and Newport (U.S.).

Professor Henderson is invited to lecture frequently with recent talks at the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, Xi'an University of Architecture and Engineering, Nashville Tree Foundation, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Harvard University, Tongji University, Beijing Forestry University, Oslo AHO, ETSAB Barcelona, Chiba University, Boston University, DESIGNxRI, US National Arboretum, Dumbarton Oaks, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and the Graham Foundation, among others. He delivered the annual Terry Harkness Lecture at the University of Illinois in 2022.

He has served as Senior Fellow of Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks and is currently on the Advisory Board of Historic New Harmony. He is a National Park Service Artist-in-Residence and Japan-U.S. Creative Artist Fellow. He was elected Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2012.

Education

B. Architecture, University of Notre Dame
M. Architecture, University of Pennsylvania
M. Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania

Teaching Experience

Visiting Firm Professor of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, 2012-2015

Professor of Landscape Architecture and Asian Studies, Stuckeman Chair of Integrative Design, The Pennsylvania State University, USA, 2011-2015

Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture, Tsinghua University, PRC, 2005-2011

Deputy Director, International English Program Master of Architecture, Tsinghua University, PRC 2009-2011

Prior appointments at Rhode Island School of Design and Roger Williams University

Professional Experience

Spring Park (Newport, R.I., U.S.)
Blue Sail Headquarters (Shanghia, China)
Elizabethan Theater at Chateau d’Hardelot (Condette, France)
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, Mass., U.S.)
Memorial to the Abolition of the Slave Trade (Nantes, France)
CityWalk (Providence, R.I., U.S.)
Xin Jiu Zhou Qing Yan Roof Garden at the China Pavilion, Shanghai Expo (Shanghai, China)
Model Ecological Park, (Tongzhou, China)

Licenses

Registered Landscape Architect in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New York

Registered Architect in Massachusetts

Foreign Expert Certificate, People's Republic of China

Selected Publications, Exhibits, and Recent Research

Recent Books and Journal Editions

Henderson, Ron (editor). 2023. 30 Trees. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag.
Henderson, Ron and Wu Hong. 2023. Special Issue on Chinese Gardens and Landscapes. Studies in the History of Gardens and Designed Landscapes. London: Taylor and Francis.
Peng, Yigang (Huaiyun Kou and Ron Henderson, translators). 2023. Analysis of the Classical Chinese Garden. Berlin: Springer. (originally published in Chinese in 1986, translation of seminal Chinese text into English for the first time).
Henderson, Ron. 2013. The Gardens of Suzhou. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Recent Book Chapters
Henderson, Ron and Toru Mitani. “Increments of Time in Japanese Cherry Blossoms.” in Ron Henderson (editor) 30 Trees. 2023. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag.
Henderson, Ron. “One Tree. Row. Two Trees. Allee. Grid. Quincunx. Clump. Woods. Forest.” in Ron Henderson (editor) 30 Trees. 2023. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag.
Henderson, Ron. “The Finely-Textured Canopy of Modernism,” in Ron Henderson (editor) 30 Trees. 2023. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag.
Henderson, Ron. “A Profession in the Making”, in Jutta Kehrer (editor) New Horizons: Eight Perspectives on Chinese Landscape Architecture Today. 2020. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag.

Recent Exhibitions
Henderson, Ron. 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2023. Sakura Orihon. United States National Arboretum. Washington, DC (USA) (Honor Award for Communication, American Society of Landscape Architects)
Henderson, Ron. 2022. Sakura Orihon. Nashville Public Libraries and the Nashville Tree Foundation. Nashville, TN (USA)
Henderson, Ron and Furnace FPS. 2023. The Finely-Textured Canopy of Modernism. in the exhibition “VÉGÉTAL.” Maison de l'architecture de Poitiers in Nouvelle-Aquitaine as part of the cycle. (Poitiers, France)
Henderson, Ron and Furnace FPS. 2021-22. The Finely-Textured Canopy of Modernism. in the exhibition “ARBORETUM.” arc en rêve centre d'architecture. (Bordeaux, France)

Funded Research and Fellowships
Shapiro, Matthew, Ron Henderson, Hao Huang, David Lampert, Brent Stephens, Maria A. Villalobos H., Stormwater Resilience and Socio-economic Imbalances in Urban Areas. National Science Foundation, Strengthening American Infrastructure (NSF SAI). 2023-2026. 3 years. $750,000.
Arias, Alexis and Ron Henderson. 2021-2022, The Socio-Environmental Implications to Urban Waters in The Driverless City. Illinois- Indiana Sea Grant. 1 year. $8,000. https://iiseagrant.org/research-project/the-socio-environmental-implications-to-urban-waters-in-the-driverless-city/
Spenko, Matthew, Ron Henderson, Boris Pervan.The Urban Design and Policy Implications of Ubiquitous Robots and Navigation Safety. National Science Foundation Ubiquitous Robots Program. 2018-2022. 3 years. $750,000. https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1830642
Olsen, Richard, Kathleen Emerson-Dell, Kurato Fujimoto, Ron Henderson. 2020-2023. Conservation of Legacy Cherry Trees at the United States National Arboretum. Friends of the National Arboretum. $55,000. https://www.usna.usda.gov/discover/protecting-our-venerable-weeping-japanese-cherry-trees/
Fujimoto, Kurato and Ron Henderson. Katsura Tree Conservation Project, Dumbarton Oaks, 2022-2023. $18,000. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-old-tree/id1643806576
Henderson, Ron and Kim Soss. 2018. Alfred Caldwell and the Performance of Democracy. Graham Foundation. 1 year. $5,000. http://www.grahamfoundation.org/grantees/5666-alfred-caldwell-and-the-performance-of-democracy-archives-and-events
Brown, Marshall, Lily Du, Laura Forlano, Ron Henderson, Jack Guthman. 2015-2016. The Driverless City Project. Nayar Prize. 1 year. $100,000. https://web.iit.edu/nayar-prize/finalists/teams/driverless-city
Henderson, Ron. 2012. Japan-US Friendship Commission Creative Artist Fellowship. 3 months. $18,000. https://www.jusfc.gov/grantee_stories/jusfc-meet-our-grantees-series-ron-henderson-landscape-architect/

Professional Activities
LIRIO Landscape Architecture. Founding Principal and Director of Design. www.LIRIO.work
DuSable Park, Steering Committee member (appointed by Chicago Park District), 2022-current
American Society of Landscape Architects-Illinois, Strategic Planning Committee, 2022-current
City/Cite Chicago x Paris, an initiative of the Consul-General of France in Chicago and Villa Albertine

Research
Landscape Architecture
Memorials and Sites of Public Commemoration
Indigenous Horticultural Practices
Urban Design and Green Infrastructure
Garden and Landscape History and Theory
Contemporary Urbanism in Asia
The Driverless City Project