We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Karla Dakin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Karla below.

Alright, Karla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

Innovation, for me, begins with risk, so much risk that I feel light headed and adrenaline courses through my veins. Two instances in my career, although there are many, come to mind. The first is my 2007 design for a green roof at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA-Denver). This was early in the green roof game in the United States, especially in Denver. I had no experience and an absurdly, short time line. But as I fell off the cliff of innovation, my fear grew wings; and I gathered the best team to collaborate with. The learning curve was an overhang and most of my nights for several months were sleepless but I would do it all again in a heart beat.

The second instance was the design of a green roof in Los Angeles for the Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH). California is not Colorado when it comes to plants; and once again I needed the ultimate team of consultants to create waves of grasses on forty-five degree slopes. So I contacted the most knowledgeable horticulturalists and green roof experts in the US, hired them, and asked questions every step of the way.

Karla, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a landscape architect, I specialize in environmentally, resilient landscape architecture with an emphasis on knowing context and what feels the most appropriate for my clients and all they share their world with. Under the auspices of K. Dakin Design Inc., I have completed a diverse array of projects, over 100 residential gardens, as well as many commercial and public projects like “Sky Trapezium,” a permanent green roof installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art / Denver, the edible gardens around the Whole Foods Flagship Store in Boulder, Colorado and the 10,000 square foot, green, roof atop the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust in California in collaboration with Belzberg Architects.

In 2013 Timber Press published “The Professional Design Guide to Green Roofs” written by myself, Lisa Lee Benjamin and Mindy Pantiel. In 2019 I was named one of the top women horticulturalists in Colorado.

I combine my landscape architecture expertise—I hold a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado, Denver–with fifteen years of experience in the art worlds of New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Art feeds my soul and inspires my designs.

In the 80’s after graduating from NYU, I worked for the New York City galleries of Annina Nosei and Paula Cooper. When I relocated to San Francisco in 1987, I started the nonprofit, architecture gallery, 2AES. 1989 brought me to Santa Monica where I worked at High Performance Magazine and the 18th Street Arts Complex.

Once I settled in Colorado in the early nineties, my involvement in the arts segued to volunteer work where I served on the Board of Directors at BMoCA ending up as President of the Board from 1999 to 2001.

At the same time, my colleagues and I founded Growwest.org., a grassroots organization devoted to education about green roofs through the coordination of symposia, research, and lectures.

Since then, I have held exhibitions (Bruce Price) and salons (Frank Martinez) in my home. Recently, I curated the retrospective of sculptor, Jerry Wingren at BMoCA and moderated artist talks with Jody Guralnick and Sherry Wiggins, respectively.

Currently I serve on the Board of Directors at Redline Contemporary Art Center in Denver.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Have you ever tried to control nature? I remember a dinner party, seated next to a preeminent, elder landscape architect, a devoted Buddhist. He was regaling the table with stories of how he maintained complete control thr0ugh every step of the design process and to the greatest extent possible, after the design was installed. There was something about his tremendous ego that he needed to hold on as tightly as possible. This was power for him. After his tales of control, he turned to me, expecting some feint of heart. Pausing for a moment, I inhaled and responded that from the beginning of my career my motto was (is) let go. All my passwords were associated with letting go, to let go, etc. Control, as mother nature has so diligently taught me is an out moded, patriarchical concept that only causes pain and frustration. Nature is chaos. My resilence is letting go of my ego and controlling nature to try to provide her the best way forward in my clients’ gardens, to give them joy and beauty in their every day worlds.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

In the world of design there seems to be a top down approach to business relationships. At the top of my heap sit architects and developers. Architects have been and continue to be my best strategic alliances. If a client is willing to pay an architect’s fees, than more often than not, they are willing to pay mine.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kdakindesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kdakindesign/
• Facebook: Karla Dakin
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kdakindesign/

Image Credits

all images credited to Karla Dakin