Who we are

Didier Design Studio is a landscape architecture firm with expertise in all facets of design and planning from vision to completion.

Working with institutions, individuals, and communities, we shape ideas and craft spaces that are inspired by and mindful of local resources, scales, textures and materials. Our designs express a unique sense of place, revealing relationships between ecological systems and cultural patterns of a given site.

 

 

Emmanuel Didier

PRINCIPAL, CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Emmanuel Didier is a landscape architect, artist, and founding principal of Didier Design Studio. A leading figure in public garden design, Emmanuel has collaborated with top botanical gardens across the nation. Parallel to his design practice, he teaches graduate level design studios at the University of Colorado Denver and lectures nationally and internationally.

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.

Emmanuel brings a highly creative design approach paired with an innate ability to communicate, collaborate, and inspire people. His recent work focuses on revealing site and ecology through artful interventions. His designs respect and express an authentic sense of place and identity while inviting people to connect to nature - both experientially and intellectually. Emmanuel leads Didier Design Studio as a mission-based practice, forming partnerships with clients and project teams around a shared sense of vision and purpose.

ed@didierdesignstudio.com

  • LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

    Kate Davenport is a landscape architect with a deep interest in revelatory ethics and aesthetics for landscapes. Her work is grounded in observation and listening; discovering and cultivating what is already precious and essential to a site. Her passion for meshing art and ecology through plant-driven design has gained greater clarity over 15+ years of experience as a designer, installer, and grower.

    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. She is a registered landscape architect in Colorado.

    kate@didierdesignstudio.com

  • SENIOR DESIGNER

    Michelle Britton brings over 6 years of experience in Landscape Architecture and Planning to her role as a designer and project manager. Her work spans a range of project types, including parks, nature centers, rooftops, hotels, affordable housing developments, and multi-family developments. With each project she is a part of, she enjoys collaborating with others and delving into research.

    With a deep commitment to creating thriving and resilient landscapes, she places community and environmental stewardship at the forefront of the design process. Her design approach is rooted in mindfulness, taking into consideration not only the aesthetics but also the people, flora, and fauna that inhabit the spaces being transformed. Her happy place is at a drafting table surrounded by markers and tracing paper navigating ways to blend art, ecology, history and site context in harmonious balance with the land.

    Michelle holds a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture with minors in Studio Art and Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

    michelle@didierdesignstudio.com

  • DESIGNER

    Ella Reid is a designer, artist, and graduate student of landscape architecture at CU Denver. Equally engaged by native wild landscapes and dense urban spaces, Ella is an avid listener for the distinct spirit of place in her design endeavors. Strong concept development, landform manipulation, and planting sensibility compliment her passion for human-centric and ecologically responsible design.

    ella@didierdesignstudio.com

  • SENIOR DESIGNER

    Susan has a broad background in design, including 15 years of experience in the fields of Landscape Architecture, Architecture and Planning. She has managed a wide range of complex projects, including public, institutional, and residential work. Susan possesses a strong sense of texture, scale, materiality, color and detailing and enjoys the immediate, hands-on nature of work in the field and with clients and the opportunities for collaborative solutions that this work affords. Her work with Didier Design Studio is also informed by her love of nature and her hands-on custom construction experience.

    She holds both a Master of Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Architecture with a minor in Landscape Architecture from The University of Virginia.

    susan@didierdesignstudio.com

  • DESIGNER

    Nick Patin is interested in the research and theory of landscape events, specifically in the informative impacts of the unseen, hidden, and invisible, the indeterminate complexity of landscape experience, and the normalizing role of portals and thresholds. He holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Bachelor of Arts in both History and Theatre. Before moving to Colorado, he worked in technical theatre focusing on lighting design and engineering, with experience in sound engineering, stage fabrication, stage management, and student management. His experience includes writing, research, design, and education, teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

    nick@didierdesignstudio.com

  • DESIGNER

    Emily is a landscape architecture graduate student at the University of Colorado Denver. She is fascinated with the making of meaningful places when ecologically healthy systems and powerful design converge. Prior to DDS and grad school, Emily worked as an archivist and writer in the private, non-profit, and public spheres. Her history working in art, research, writing, universal design, education, and domestic violence actively informs her designs for ecologically-focused landscapes.

    Emily holds a Master’s degree in Modern American History from James Madison University, a B.A. in History and an A.A. in the Visual Arts from Carroll College, and is a certified Green Roof Professional.

    emily@didierdesignstudio.com

 

Awards

 

Clients and Collaborators

Honor Award, Pollinators’ and Bird Garden at the Arboretum at Penn State, Colorado Chapter/American Society of Landscape Architects, 2022

Merit Award, Myrna H. Berger Children and Family Garden at the Desert Botanical Garden, Colorado Chapter/American Society of Landscape Architects, 2019

Merit Award, Sensory Garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens, Colorado Chapter/American Society of Landscape Architects, 2018

Honor Award, Myrna H. Berger Children and Family Garden at the Desert Botanical Garden, Arizona Chapter/American Society of Landscape Architects, 2018

President’s Award of Excellence, Steppe Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens, Colorado Chapter/American Society of Landscape Architects, 2016

Merit Award, Children’s Garden at the Arboretum at Penn State, Colorado Chapter/American Society of Landscape Architects, 2014

 

Adams County Parks and Open Space

AMD Architects

The Arboretum at Penn State

Botanica, The Wichita Gardens

The Brenton Arboretum

Burden Museum and Gardens at LSU

Colorado State University

Cypress International University

Denver Art Museum

Denver Botanic Gardens

Desert Botanical Garden

Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden

Konza Technopolis Development Authority

Lake Flato Architects

McKee Botanical Gardens

MRY Architects

Ratio Architects

Santa Fe Botanical Garden

SA+R Architects

Sias International University

Studio Completiva

University of Colorado

University of Denver

Wilbur May Arboretum

 

“Emmanuel’s design is a beautiful tapestry of hills, ponds, structures and gardens, but beneath that beauty is a palette of plants and soils chosen and crafted using the best science toward our goal of attracting a great variety of birds and insect pollinators. The garden is a marriage of really good design and really good science, and I think that makes it very interesting.”

-Kim Steiner, Director of the Arboretum at Penn State, client for the Pollinators’ and Bird Garden