Founding Principal
Emmanuel Didier
Emmanuel Didier is the founding principal of Didier Design Studio and a professor in practice at the University of Colorado Denver. Emmanuel holds a Master of Architecture and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia as well as a Fine Arts degree from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in his native country of France.
After moving to the United States, Emmanuel expanded his passion for landscape architecture with Child Associates in Boston, Nelson Byrd Woltz in Charlottesville, and EDAW/AECOM in Colorado before opening his own practice. His most recent projects include the Childhood’s Gate Garden at the Arboretum at Penn State University, three new spaces for the Denver Botanic Gardens including the new Steppe Garden which hosts the international center for research on the Steppe flora, campus works with The University of Denver and Cyprus International University, as well as sustainable planning and design guidelines for the future Konza Tech City located south of Nairobi in Kenya.
Selected Awards
- 2016 ASLA Colorado President’s Award of Excellence in Research and Communication
- 2014 ASLA Colorado Merit Award
- 2011 ASLA Colorado Merit Award (with EDAW/AECOM)
- 2010 ASLA National Excellence Award (with EDAW/AECOM)
- 2009 ASLA Nevada Honor Award (with EDAW/AECOM)
- 2009 ASLA National Honor Award (with NBWLA)
email: ed@didierdesignstudio.com
Project Manager / Designer
Will Viitanen
Will Viitanen is project manager and designer at Didier Design Studio with extensive experience leading a variety of projects from large civic and university designs to public gardens and residential sites. Will holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado Denver and an Environmental Design and Architecture degree from the University of Colorado Boulder. His background in architecture informs a sensibility in design thinking, craft, and detailing.
He is most interested in the power of landscape in addressing social and environmental issues while telling powerful narratives weaving architecture and landscape as one. He brings design excellence to the team from design concept to documentation and construction observation. His recent projects include three new gardens for the Denver Botanic Gardens including the 2016 ASLA Colorado President’s Award of Excellence winning Steppe Garden, STEM at the University of Denver, and a new children and family garden at the Desert Botanical Gardens.
email: will@didierdesignstudio.com
Office Manager
Paulette Hernandez
Paulette Hernandez is office manager at Didier Design Studio with a background in business management. She is a vital part of our business, financial, and administrative operations and helps our entire team operate more efficiently on a day-to-day basis. She is a champion organizer with an aptitude for copy editing and writing. Paulette received her BA in English Literature and a Master of Management Practices, both from Colorado State University.
Designer
Jeff Brunette
Jeff Brunette is a designer at Didier Design Studio with expertise in digital modeling and graphics. Jeff holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado Denver and a B.A. in Graphic Design from Marian University. Through his academic and professional experiences, Jeff has developed an enthusiasm for pushing boundaries in the use of technology and digital design, especially as a means to develop enduring and evolving landscapes.
His skills lend to drafting, detailing, rendering, and crafting physical and digital models for a wide range of projects. He can often be found piloting our studio’s drone to create digital terrain models for projects. Jeff’s recent work includes a masterplan for the Cyprus International University campus, the CSU Science Commons, and the Sensory Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens.
email: jeff@didierdesignstudio.com
Designer
Kate Davenport
Kate Davenport is a designer at Didier Design Studio with a passion for projects that promote biodiversity and resilience while framing powerful experiences that connect people to the natural world. She approaches design as an opportunity to further reveal and enhance the intrinsic qualities that make each site unique.
Kate holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado Denver and a B.A. in Fine Art from Colorado College. Her background in art informs her ability to use drawing and modeling as tools for inspiration, discovery, and refinement of design ideas. Her recent projects include Master Development Planning for Chatfield Farms, an updated master plan for the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, and the Steppe Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens
email: kate@didierdesignstudio.com
Designer
Stacy Ester
Stacy is a designer at Didier Design Studio with expertise in art making and computational analysis. Stacy holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Geographic Information Sciences certificate from the University of Colorado Denver, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from the University of Texas at Austin. Her strength in merging GIS analyses into the design process allows her to participate in creative and responsible design.
Her passion for interdisciplinary and public collaboration has influenced her to strengthen her scientific and creative lenses, enabling her to have meaningful dialogues with a variety of individuals throughout the design process. Her recent projects include design for a new Pollinators’ Garden and Bird Garden at the Arboretum at Penn State and master planning for Campus Green at the University of Denver.
email: stacy@didierdesignstudio.com
Designer
Brittany Duncan
Brittany is a designer at Didier Design Studio whose journalism background informs her investigative approach to landscapes, uncovering layers and narratives to create renewed places of meaning. Her areas of expertise include writing, editing, print and digital design, research and storytelling. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism from the University of Missouri Columbia and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado Denver. Most recently, she was named the ASLA National Honor Award Recipient by a jury of practicing Landscape Architects. Her current projects include a Master Plan for the Santa Fe Botanical Garden and York Street Garden Renovations at the Denver Botanic Gardens.
PLACE + MAKING
At Didier Design Studio, we practice landscape architecture as a transformative process. Our design philosophy is rooted in the exchange between place and making: revealing or enhancing the essence of place through the act of making. From drawing to modeling and testing, we collaborate with institutions, individuals, and communities to shape ideas and craft spaces that are inspired by and mindful of local resources, scales, textures and materials. We ground our work in analysis and science, but also open our creative process to intuition and serendipity, weaving layers of beauty and meaning into the landscape. Our designs express a unique sense of place, often revealing relationships between ecological systems and cultural patterns of a given site.
“ …a site’s characteristics are not simply circumstances to be accommodated or mitigated. Instead, a site’s physical and sensual properties are sources for design expression”. -Elizabeth Meyer – Site Matters
“Topology is meant to weave meaningful symbolism back into a particular place by understanding its terrain and surface condition, and by modifying the inherent significance of natural features as they interact with the purpose of man [community], his daily life and destiny”. –Christophe Girot
“I don’t paint things, I paint relationships between things”. – Henri Matisse