Kevin SLOAN, a beloved landscape architect, educator and thought leader passed away last week. Kevin was the founder of Kevin Sloan Studio, a Professor of Practice in Architecture at University of Texas-Arlington, and a writer for the Dallas Morning News. The work of his professional practice, Kevin Sloan Studio, was nationally and internationally recognized, published and exhibited. A 2000 Harvard Loeb Fellow finalist, Sloan was a visiting professor to Syracuse University in Florence as a Graduate Fellow (see image above of Kevin sketching in the Vatican Gardens). With OMA, Kevin Sloan Studio earned a 2015 National Planning & Analysis Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Kevin served as a Chair of the Urban Design Advisory Committee at Dallas City Hall, a member of the Columns Advisory Board for AIA Dallas, and was a Board member for the Fay Jones School of Architecture for ten years. Kevin was also a past member of the Board of Directors of The Dallas Architecture Forum, and served as a Moderator and as a Panelist on panels presented by The Forum. Kevin was known for his careful sketches of places he visited, including the middle photo above of Kevin sketching in Malta in 2010.
Kevin Sloan’s landscape architecture, planning and urbanism concepts for the DFW Branch Waters Network were part of the UTA CAPPA exhibition at the 2021 Venice Architectural Biennale. In 2020, Kevin Sloan Studio launched rewildUS as an international imperative to proliferate rewilding globally. Additional accomplishments included the competition-winning plan that attracted the George W. Bush Presidential Library to Southern Methodist University; the plaza surrounding Foster & Partners Winspear Opera House in the Dallas Arts District; the landscape architecture, pavilion design and fountain for the SMU Centennial Quadrangle and the Airfield Falls Conservation Park near the former Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth – the first demonstration of a rewilded work of landscape architecture in Texas. Kevin held an undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture from Kansas State and a Master of Architecture from Syracuse University.
Kevin’s loss is a deep one for all of us. Paraphrasing Brad Bell, “Kevin was a person filled with endless intellectual curiosity and joy, with a passion for teaching and landscape design”. Kevin was a transformative person, who changed how many of us see the urban landscape around us. He also positively impacted the focus on public space in North Texas and beyond through his own practice and his insightful teaching.
The Forum extends our sympathy to his widow, Diane, and to all who loved and had their lives enriched by Kevin. Kevin’s conceptual image below, of a rewilded Trinity River basin with geese rising to the sky reflects Kevin’s inspired vision – may that vision continue to take flight in all of us.
