Today we’d like to introduce you to Tim Smith
Tim, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
How and why I became a landscape architect probably goes back to my childhood in Lexington, Kentucky and Tucson, Arizona. As a young boy in Kentucky, my dad was a very busy equine veterinarian, so to see him, I would go to work with him on the weekends. That exposed me to horses and some of the best horse farms in the world and ultimately played a huge role in my career now, which I will get back to in just a minute.
We also lived on a 900 acre farm so playing outside and being creative in coming up with fun things to do in nature also likely influenced my interest and philosophy of design as a landscape architect now.
We did have a few horses for a while but they were more pleasure horses. My siblings and I cared for them and they probably took care of us too. I believe being around horses can be a fantastic learning experience about life far more than just understanding horses.
Later, when I was 11, my mome moved us to Tucson, Arizona where I was shocked to see horses in small pipe corrals in the desert with no grass. This was another learning experience to understand how different regions in the world deal with their own environmental opportunities and challenges and in this case, raising horses with smaller amounts of land and less water.
Finally, after high school, I moved back to Kentucky on my own and worked on my Dad’s farm, Pegasus Stud, working with broodmares, foals and yearlings. Now working with horses was an actual job and I loved it but decided I didn’t want to be in the “business” of buying and selling horses so I decided to study landscape architecture instead.
All of this, plus my interest in drawing and art, lead me to study landscape architecture.
While studying landscape architecture in school, I had not even thought of the connection to horses until I read an article about a farm (Gainsway Farm) that had been designed by a landscape architect and that is when the light went off. I saw my opportunity to integrate my love for horses with my love of art and nature. I realized that there were not likely that many building architects or landscape architects that had the experience or exposure that I had so why couldn’t I eventually offer the combined knowledge to horsemen around the world.
Now, while my firm designs residential estates, parks, commercial properties and a variety of special land use projects, we have so much fun designing equestrian facilities of all sizes and types.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
That’s an interesting question. In the beginning, it certainly was not easy. At the University of Kentucky you had to take an aptitude test to get into their landscape architecture program and after taking it, the director of the program told me I would most likely have a harder time than my classmates and that I should think carefully before getting into landscape architecture. That scared me enough to keep me from going into it right away.
Later, for unrelated reasons, I went back to Arizona and met one of the professors who happened to be teaching in the landscape architecture program at the University of Arizona. I enrolled in the Intro class for the five year program and found that I didn’t struggle any more than my classmates. We all struggled through many all-nighters which seemed to be the way of it.
After graduation I traveled throughout Latin America and Europe for about a year, working along the way, to be able to afford the traveling and ended up working for a great landscape architecture firm in Amsterdam. There, we were working on the redesign of the city center of The Hague.
After I returned from Europe I worked in Tucson and San Diego for 6 years and decided to go out on my own. I would say I was probably a little too young to start my own practice because at the time, I didn’t know what I didn’t know and had to learn by making a lot of business mistakes. I had to learn how to write contracts and so many other things that I would have learned if I had stayed working in an experienced firm but I believe this, in the end, has made me a better landscape architect.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are a small firm that does both large and small projects. As I stated before, we enjoy designing equestrian facilities that are safe, efficient and beautiful from the perspective of the horses and the people. However, we truly love designing outdoor spaces that improve the lives of the people and community that uses them.
We believe it is most important to ask ourselves, before beginning the design of any type of project, WHAT is this project and WHY are we doing it. “What” the project is is a very important question to understand on a deeper level. Not just is it a park or a horse farm or an urban plaza but what will the project do for the people who use it? Why is this project important? Who will it serve and why would anybody need or want to come to the site. Is there history to the site? Is there any particularly interesting history to the site?
The answers to these questions will guide us in creating spaces that are meaningful and fulfill a real need.
Besides our approach to designing any project, what sets us apart from other landscape architecture firms is our unique understanding of designing equestrian facilities of all kinds. My personal background of being in a family that is entrenched in the horse business has given me a bit of an unusual combination of experiences as a horseman and a landscape architect.
We prepare master plans and construction drawings for equestrian projects and that includes layout out the internal roads, house and barn locations, parking, pastures, paddocks, arenas, fencing, all of the equestrian related infrastructure, planting, irrigation, grading and lighting.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
That’s another interesting question. I guess the first risk I took was leaving the firm I was with and starting my own practice. Especially since I had not heard yet whether or not I had passed my licensing exam. I am not sure how to really answer the question of my view on risk taking but I do know that when I do something that may seem risky, I won’t do it if anyone else could be negatively affected by it if I fail.
Perhaps taking on a project of a type that I have never done before could be considered a risk but I look at the project and ask myself what the worst case scenario is. It may mean that I have to work a lot of extra hours to get it right but that also means maybe we come up with unique solutions because it is something we haven’t done a hundred times before.
As I think about this question, I realize that if one’s motives are pure in whatever one does, you will be guided to make the right decision on taking the next step. It will be clear.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wynn-smith.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wynnsmithlandarch
Image Credits
The second, fourth – sixth and eighth photos were taken by Joe Dodd
