Tanya Kelley | Director
Tanya Kelley is a landscape designer and environmental advocate with thirty years of experience, including projects that have been recognized for design excellence from professional organizations and civic agencies. Her projects and articles have been featured in professional, local and national publications, including the New York Times. She received a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from the City College of the City of New York and a Masters in Landscape Architecture from The Rhode Island School of Design. She frequently teaches Landscape Architecture at the University of Rhode Island.
She is active in planning and policy in Newport, Rhode Island where she has served the Washington Square Advisory Commission, Critical Area Review. is a former Commissioner for the Rhode Island Historic Preservation and Heritage Commission and the State Preservation and Heritage Review Board. Tanya is the founder and Principal of PLACEstudio in Newport, RI where she also lives. Tanya is committed to preserving and planting trees, restoring rich ecological habitats, and conserving cultural landscapes.
She frequently collaborates with Ron Henderson / Lirio Landscape Architecture where she has been project manager for planning and design projects in the United States and China - including the award-winning Master Plan for XiHaizi Model Ecological Park (Beijing, China), Anthracite Garden (Cambridge MA), Pawtucket Downtown Design Plan (Pawtucket, RI), City Walk (Providence, RI), Elmwood Avenue Enhancement Report (Providence, RI) and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, MA). She is currently providing design and management leadership on our Historic Newport Town Spring project, the site of the freshwater spring around which Newport was founded.
In 2018 Tanya was awarded a research fellowship at the Preservation Society of Newport to study contemporary sculpture on the grounds of historic houses. The fellowship culminated in a lecture and article entitled ‘The Intersection of Past & Present: Contemporary Sculpture in Historic Places’. Tanya frequently lectures on a variety of topics at local and regional universities and organizations. Lectures include 'Strategies for a Diverse and Vibrant Newport Harbor', at The University of Connecticut Sea Grant; ‘Native Plant Ecosystems and Trees’ at Roger Williams University; Art, Architecture and Historic Preservation School; ‘Newport's Historic Beech Trees, Collection and Stewardship’, the Poetics of Plant Design Colloquium at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. and she spoke about her own work at DesignXri during RI Design Week at the Newport Art Museum.