Shane Coen “Contextual Minimalism"

For over twenty years, Shane has led Coen + Partners’ innovative practice, promoting the design vision and aspiration of the studio.  As a result of his leadership, creativity, and disciplined design approach, Coen + Partners’ has built a distinguished body of award-winning work that is widely-recognized as progressive and timeless. Shane’s studio has won numerous awards for landscape architecture, planning and urban design and is acknowledged by the AIA, the ASLA, the GSA Design Excellence program and the editorial staff of influential publications such as The New York Times, Metropolis, Dwell, and Architectural Record. The New York Times architectural critic, Anne Raver, describes Coen + Partners’ work as ‘pushing Midwestern boundaries’.

Shane’s work is recognized with multiple national ASLA awards, the Special Award for Collaborative Work from the American Institute of Architects Minnesota Chapter, as well as the prestigious Progressive Architecture (P/A) citation for the redesign of Mayo Plan #1, radical reinterpretation of a new residential community in Rochester, Minnesota. This award represented only the second time a landscape architect had received this honor in the competition’s fifty-year history. In 2015, Coen + Partners’ body of work was recognized with the 2015 National Design Award from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; the Award is bestowed in recognition of excellence, innovation, and enhancement of the quality of life.

In addition to his practice, Shane lectures extensively, including participation in a lecture series at the New School in New York and a sustainable waterfronts symposium co-hosted by AIA Chicago and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Shane has taught multiple studio courses at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD) and has lectured at University of California Berkeley, University of Southern California, Princeton University, James Rose Center in New Jersey, and Portland Museum of Art.  Upon receiving an Emerging Voices Award for 2009, he was also a featured speaker for the Emerging Voices Lecture Series, sponsored by the Architectural League of New York.

Shane continues to focus on building collaborative relationships with influential contemporary architects, designers, and artists throughout the world.