LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
& DESIGN STRATEGIST
Laz
McCormick
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Creative solution finder, with design as my medium. I am a landscape architect and design strategist with a deep conviction that the built environment is never purely built. Every project carries within it a set of relationships - ecological, cultural, social - that existed long before the drawings began and will continue long after construction ends. My work begins with that understanding.
I came to design through landscape; through the study of water, vegetation, soil, light, and the way living systems shape one another across time. That foundation never left me. It taught me to think in relationships rather than objects, in consequences rather than aesthetics alone - though I believe that what we build should move people as much as it serves them.
Over time, my practice has expanded outward. I work across the boundaries of landscape architecture, design strategy, and spatial thinking - bringing analytical rigour and creative sensibility to projects that require both. I am particularly interested in how design functions as a form of cultural intelligence: how the spaces we inhabit reflect our values, carry our histories, and either honour or diminish the communities they serve.
I write about these ideas too. Because I believe that the thinking behind design matters as much as the design itself - that the most consequential part of any project is often the conversation that happens before anything is drawn.
I am building toward a practice that leads. One that shapes not just what gets made, but the vision, values, and direction that determine why.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
& DESIGN STRATEGIST
DESIGNING AT THE INTERSECTION OF ECOLOGY, MEMORY AND CONSEQUENCE
Featured Articles
In design thereβs a tendency to mythologise the individual: the architect, the visionary, the mind behind the landmark. We see it in names etched on the walls of skyscrapers, in glossy magazine spreads celebrating βbold new visionsβ, and in spaces that are crafted more to make statement than serve purpose. But the world of design is no stranger to contrast, and an alternate approach has begun to quietly emerge; one that posits a step away from self-aggrandising, and a step toward a subtler, yet arguably more important purpose. What if a designerβs real purpose isnβt to showcase, but to serve?