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College of Design

Kofi Boone, FASLA

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Kofi Boone

Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, Director of Graduate Program in Landscape Architecture

919-515-8349
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Bio

* See Kofi discuss his work in the Landscape Architecture + Environmental Planning department in this video!*

Kofi Boone, FASLA is a Joseph D. Moore Distinguished Professor and University Faculty Scholar at NC State University. His work overlaps landscape architecture and environmental justice, with specializations in democratic design and interpreting cultural landscapes. He is a Detroit native and a graduate of The University of Michigan (BSNR 1992, MLA 1995). Kofi leads the Just Communities Lab which collaborates with community organizations seeking technical assistance with environmental challenges ranging from resiliency planning to sustainable food systems. He has advised and earned national award-winning projects and is widely published. His recent publication, Empty Pedestals: Countering Confederate Narratives Through Public Design (co-edited with M. Elen Deming) earned a National ASLA Honor Award in Communications, and was a finalist for the J.B. Jackson Book Prize. Kofi is a past-president of the Landscape Architecture Foundation and currently serves on the boards of the Land Loss Prevention Project and The Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association.

Videos

  • “Cellphone Diaries”, Block2 Gallery Video
    This video summarizes narrative themes for Cellphone Diaries, a participatory video asset mapping process that used smartphones to document important places in Raleigh’s Chavis Park. This video was prepared for a Gallery exhibition in Raleigh, NC.
  • Transforming North Carolina’s Research Triangle – Setting the Stage: Kofi Boone
    This video summarizes elements in the cultural landscape of the Research Triangle Region at Leading with Landscape IV sponsored by The Cultural Landscape Foundation.
  • Cooper Hewitt, 2021 National Design Awards
    Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum hosts this lively conversation among winners and jurors of the 2021 National Design Awards, which recognize innovation and impact and the power of design to change the world. The discussion looks at contemporary challenges and opportunities in design, including equity and climate change, as well as the role of collaboration as part of the design process, particularly with local communities.
  • Sylvester Baxter Lecture: Kofi Boone, “Recognition, Reconciliation, Reparation”
    Inequitable human development is often at the heart of environmental injustice. Landscape architecture and environmental planning is adapting to the roles the places co-created with communities can play in redistributing power, information, and resources required to build human capacity with vulnerable populations. Sharing history, research, and current work, this lecture will present challenges and opportunities associated with landscape processes for recognizing environmental injustice, reconciling with harmed communities, and the pursuit of reparative work.
  • Red Chair Chats with Chancellor Woodson and Professor Kofi Boone | Episode 5
    In episode 5 of Red Chair Chats, Chancellor Randy Woodson sits down at Raleigh’s historic Chavis Park with distinguished professor of landscape architecture Kofi Boone. During his 20 years with the NC State College of Design, Boone has worked to bridge the discipline of landscape architecture with social and environmental justice — and was recently awarded the Jot D. Carpenter Teaching Medal from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
  • Empty Pedestals: Countering Confederate Narratives Through Public Design
    This video covers a roundtable on Empty Pedestals and the broader topic of healing public spaces through public design. The conversation was convened at the University of Virginia, and features book co-editors Kofi Boone and M. Elen Deming. Book contributors C.L. Bohannon and Elgin Cleckley.

Education

Master of Landscape Architecture University of Michigan 1995

Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources University of Michigan 1992

Publications

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Groups