Claire Agre
Claire Agre PLA ASLA
Claire is a Partner and Co-founder of Unknown Studio Landscape Architecture & Urban Design LLC. In her daily work, she brings humor, passion, and conceptual clarity to projects of all scales and types.
Broadening landscape practice with a background in painting and ecology, Claire has led design and implementation for a diverse portfolio of projects, including Governors Island, Druid Lake, North Meadow on the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Baltimore's internationally-renowned Harborplace, Portland Museum of Art, Miami Beach Soundscape Park, multiple Plans for Longwood Gardens and its award-winning Main Fountain Garden Revitalization, The Nasher Haemisegger Family Sculpture Garden at Duke University, planning at The Land and Garden Preserve on Mount Desert Island, Maine, and at the largest scale, the winning entry for Changing Course—an interdisciplinary, international design competition seeking solutions for the disappearing Lower Mississippi Delta.
Claire seeks to link care, beauty, and collective action in the hope of leaving our world better than we found it. Beginning with her first high school job at a commercial greenhouse, Claire has loved the workings and lifelong impact of a garden. She brings particular expertise in conservation and botanic garden planning and design, notably the multidisciplinary design teams responsible for The Houston Botanic Garden and Naples Botanical Garden; both organizations dedicated to uniting conservation, inclusion, and beauty. In both private and public realms, Claire’s work puts physical and social connectivity at the forefront, as seen on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, her work on the Kennett Greenway in dialogue with planning at Longwood Gardens, and breaking down historic barriers to open space across redlined Baltimore, MD.
Claire holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Science and Policy from Duke University. She is a licensed Landscape Architect in Maryland, North Carolina, Texas, New York, Massachusetts, Maine and Pennsylvania. A clear and compelling speaker, she has lectured and taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania, University of Toronto, University of Texas, University of Oregon, University of British Columbia and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Claire is an avid outdoorswoman and traveler, finding inspiration in both the remote backcountry and wanders on all continents. Closest to home, Claire is a mother of three girls, one dog, and assorted cats and chickens. She is an active presence in the ongoing uplift and stewardship of public space in her beloved hometown of Baltimore.