Event is now online only for the general public.

Meet Agency Landscape + Planning, Designers of Wharf Park

We have been envisioning a future “Southside Riverfront Park” for over 15 years. Community members’ priorities during The Plan of Nashville visioning sessions were all about reconnecting to the riverfront, and this is one of the major developments that is finally coming to fruition as Wharf Park. 

Agency Landscape + Planning, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, got the bid to design Wharf Park, and community engagement sessions began in August run by Metro Parks.

We are so excited to welcome Agency to Nashville. This event is all about meeting the designers and getting excited for the future park design! Agency is a women-owned, mission-driven firm who is dedicated to equity and access—two critical elements that will go into this riverfront park. We will get to see a breadth of their work with the hopes that Agency may accomplish our community’s dreams for more riverfront connections. 

“Agency is the capacity of human beings to act, to make choices. Planning can remove barriers. Design is an act of optimism. Equity and optimism are much needed, today more than ever. At Agency Landscape + Planning, we believe in the power of people to initiate and make purposeful, positive change.”

About Agency 

Agency is the capacity of human beings to act, to make choices. Planning can remove barriers. Design is an act of optimism. Optimism and action are much needed, today more than ever. At Agency Landscape + Planning, we believe in the power of people to initiate and make purposeful, positive change.

Agency is a women-owned small business (WOSB) and certified DBE/WBE practice based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our work engages the full spectrum of design services—from strategic planning to complex public realm implementation. It is tied together by a commitment to public sector work with deep community engagement. We have a significant practice dedicated to urban planning, from the regional to district scale, and a team of twelve designers and planners.

Agency is a mission-driven practice dedicated to addressing social equity, cultural vitality and environmental resilience through design excellence, strategic planning and community engagement. Co-founders Brie Hensold and Gina Ford have worked together for over a decade. 

Beyond our core team, we have formed a network of diverse and innovative thinkers across the country that share our passion for social good, resilience and the power of public space. Together, we represent a broad cross-section of specialized knowledge and skills. Our partners, like us, believe a more resilient and equitable approach to planning and design will lead to more relevant, contextual and vibrant public environments.

Gina Ford, FASLA

Principal and Co-Founder, Agency Landscape + Planning

Gina Ford is a landscape architect, co-founder and principal of Agency Landscape + Planning. Underpinning her twenty-five years of practice are a commitment to the design and planning of public places and the perpetuation of the value of landscape architecture via thought leadership, teaching, writing and lecturing.  Her work has received awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects, among others. She is on the board of directors for the Cultural Landscape Foundation and was the recipient of the Harvard Graduate

Susannah Ross

Senior Landscape Architect, Agency Landscape + Planning

Susannah has extensive experience managing complex urban landscape design and construction. She is passionate about the design of public open spaces in urban settings. She enjoys exploring the potential of landscape design to enrich the daily life, health and well-being of city dwellers and urban ecology, and to shape the core identity of a city. She welcomes the challenge of designing to meet a diverse set of interests in a complex physical context. Prior to joining Agency, Susannah was a Senior Associate with Sasaki, where she worked for 16 years. Prior to that she was a software user interface designer.  

Kymberly Ware

Landscape Designer, Agency Landscape + Planning

Kymberly is a landscape designer who recently graduated from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design with her Masters in Landscape Architecture and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Landscape Architecture from Ohio State University’s Knowlton School. She is passionate about landscape systems and how they can inform community resilience, public health and ecological sustainability. Her approach to design seeks to investigate the public realm through multiple scales and perspectives so that no story is left untold.