Shauna Gillies-Smith FASLA, MAUD, BARCH

Shauna Gillies-Smith is the founding principal of GROUND and personally oversees the design direction of all the firm’s projects. Trained first as an architect and urban designer, her shift to landscape practice was motivated by the desire to reveal the potentials of surprise and pleasure in the urban realm.

Shauna’s landscapes play a protagonist role in the experience of the city – creating unexpected moments of joy and engagement that craft the stage for the drama of urban life.   The work strives to balance careful detailing and execution with comfort and openness in use, fully believing that urban landscapes need the dynamic participation of the public to be successful.

Active in both professional and academic spheres, Shauna has taught landscape architecture design studios and technical courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, RISD, UBC, RPI and Tulane.  She received a MAUD degree from Harvard’s GSD, a BArch from the University of British Columbia, and a BA (Econ) from Queen’s University.  

Currently Shauna is a Trustee of the Boston Architectural College and sits on the Advisory Board of the Design Industry Group of Massachusetts. She is a frequent speaker at conferences such as ABX, the national ASLA conference, and ULI; and has played an active role on numerous design juries. Shauna has held the roles of Co-chair of the Urban Design Committee at the BSA, both Contributing Editor and Editorial Board Member of Architecture Boston Magazine and is the former Affiliate Director on the Board of the Boston Society for Architecture.

Shauna has been honored with numerous design awards and in a prior phase of life was a nationally ranked bicycle racer.