Lin-Luse, Michelle
Michelle Lin-Luse
Michelle Lin-Luse is a licensed landscape architect with expertise in the design, construction, and project management of on-structure landscapes and gardens. Her design practice combines her ecology, art, and advocacy background. Lin-Luse has over 15 years of professional experience in designing, constructing, and co-creating landscapes and gardens. She is passionate about using horticulture and plant-driven ecological design to restore communities and connection to the environment. Lin-Luse is a landscape architect at Hollander Design in Chicago, Illinois.
Michelle Lin-Luse was born in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1981. She and her family moved to the United States when she was three years old. They moved because of the poor air quality in Taipei at the time, which had caused significant breathing and health issues for her mother and one of her older brothers. She was grateful that her family had the means and resources to move and that U.S. immigration policies at the time encouraged families with professional backgrounds to move to the U.S.
Lin-Luse grew up in the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia - a very conservative and mostly white community at the time. She attended Parkview High School in Lilburn, Georgia. Lin-Luse had always wanted to do something in the environmental field and even had dreams of being a forest ranger so that she could spend most of her time outdoors hiking and camping. As a child, she loved painting traditional Chinese paintings, especially the Shan-Shui style of landscape paintings.
In 1999, Lin-Luse started college at the University of Michigan. In 2002, she participated in the University of California Berkeley’s Public Policy and International Affairs Program. She became interested in environmental justice while studying at the University of Michigan, “During college, I started to understand more how race, class, and other social factors affect [the] quality of life for communities of color,” she says. “After I was turned on to environmental justice, I felt very passionately and strongly about it. I still love the outdoors and natural resources and so forth, but environmental justice issues are much closer to my heart” (2023). Lin-Luse graduated from the University of Michigan in 2003 with a bachelor of science in natural resources and environment and a specialization in environmental justice. In 2007, she started graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2011, she graduated with a dual master’s degree in landscape architecture and city planning from the University of Pennsylvania.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, Lin-Luse started working at the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) as an Environmental Justice Organizer in Dearborn, Michigan. She worked there from 2003 to 2006. In 2003, she also co-founded the Detroit Asian Youth Project and was a community organizer with the organization until 2007.
From 2005 to 2006, Lin-Luse was a Community Development Specialist with the Cass Corridor Neighborhood Development Corporation. In these roles, she coordinated revitalization and community-building projects in Detroit.
In 2007, Lin-Luse moved to Philadelphia to attend the University of Pennsylvania. She used her experience working with local community groups in her succeeding roles focused on green stormwater infrastructure design in Philadelphia. In 2009, she interned at the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center. In 2010, she worked with the Green Infrastructure Team at the Philadelphia Water Department.
While at the University of Pennsylvania, Lin-Luse worked as a teaching assistant and research assistant from 2010 to 2011. In 2011, before graduating with her master’s degree, she was a Design Intern at OLIN.
In 2011, after graduating with her master’s, Lin-Luse joined Town and Gardens Ltd. in New York City as a Landscape Architect and Studio Director. She was involved in landscape design, specializing in residential garden design, rooftop gardens, green roofs, commercial and civic gardens, and horticultural design, construction, and maintenance. In 2016, she left Town & Gardens to be an Associate Landscape Architect at HMWhite. She worked there for a year before joining the New York Botanical Garden in 2017 as a landscape design instructor. She taught Landscape Design at the New York Botanical Garden Midtown Education Center.
In 2017, Lin-Luse moved to Chicago to be a Landscape Architect at Hollander Design. She draws directly from her past training and experience in ecology and community development. Lin-Luse is passionate about using horticulture and ecological planting designs for residential and commercial clients.
In 2021, Lin-Luse became the co-chair of the Environmental Justice Professional Practice Network of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
One of Lin-Luse’s hobbies is stunt-kite flying.
Lin-Luse considers Grace Lee Boggs a significant mentor. Boggs inspired her to move to Detroit after college and dive deeply into environmental justice community organizing that was taking place in Detroit. Boggs’ writings and teachings attracted many social justice movement leaders and innovative thinkers from around the world to visit Detroit. Together, architects from local organizations and activists envisioned a project to turn acres of abandoned lots in Detroit into productive, ecologically functional landscapes that directly benefitted the local community. In the early 2000s, this type of thinking was not as prevalent as today. The project inspired Lin-Luse to return to graduate school to study landscape architecture. She wanted to learn the design tools, processes, and language to go beyond protesting environmental injustices and be part of creating and building healthy communities.
Michelle Lin-Luse. N.d. https://www.michelinluse.com/
Michelle Lin-Luse, PLA. n.d. Home [LinkedIn Page]. LinkedIn. Retrieved July 26, 2023 from https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelinluse/.
Survey and interviews conducted by Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability Initiative staff. 2022-2023. Yale University-School of the Environment. New Haven, Connecticut.