Paul Blanding admits that his enrollment in the Landscape Architecture Program at IIT College of Architecture was mostly a matter of being in the right place at the right time. A graduate of Oberlin College, Blanding was working full-time as a florist and part-time doing plant installation and maintenance when a garden designer friend told him about IIT.
“I was beginning to search for ways to combine my lifelong love of art and philosophy with my newfound passion for plants when I heard about IIT’s brand new program,” says Blanding. “The more I learned about the field of landscape architecture, the more I realized what a perfect match it was.”Blanding adds that some big names associated with the college’s distinctive past also contributed to his decision. “The reputation of Mies van der Rohe and Caldwell caught my attention, and S. R. Crown Hall made a good first impression,” he says.
A defining moment in the program was Blanding’s trip to Europe the spring of his first year, when he and his classmates had the chance to immerse themselves in contemporary design and develop into members of a cohesive educational community. Connecting with local professionals and getting an inside look into Chicago’s urban design scene have been other program highlights.
“I’ve enjoyed having professors with such a wide variety of practices—from small boutique architecture and landscape offices to larger commercial practices with municipal clients—and have been able to get a sense for what kind of work I look forward to doing myself,” explains Blanding. “I was lucky enough to land a great internship at Wolff Landscape Architecture the summer after my first year; I’ve stayed on through the school year and summer 2009. The spring of my second year, I began working on my first private residential commission. It has been a great, if daunting, experience and a real change of pace from both the work I do in school and in the office."