Philip Enquist is a consulting partner with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill where he led the urban designpractice for 20 years. He is a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects and an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.  He currently serves as a Governor’s Chair for Energy and Urbanism at the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The father of Philip Enquist was a rebel who didn’t appreciate shortly-cropped mowed lawns, and he allowed the grass in the front yard of their Southern California home to grow long. The neighbors didn’t share his aesthetic, and occasionally one or another of them couldn’t resist the temptation to show up and boldly mow the Enquist lawn. Eventually, Philip’s father moved the whole family away from suburbia out into the Mojave desert where there were no lawns. “Just native chaparral and native groundcovers,” Philip recalls. “That’s really where I was exposed to the beauty of natural landscapes: roadrunners, quail, and it was wonderful.”

Philip studied architecture at the University of Southern California and went to work for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), first in California and later in Chicago. His architectural practice reflects an understanding that nature is the foundation for all society, all culture, and all economies. As the head of SOM’s Urban Design & Planning group, Philip had that in mind as he planned the infrastructure of cities: small plans, large plans, all over the world. “The challenge of reurbanization now is to continue to make cities more accessible and more affordable. How to make them more just and more equal so that we don’t ignore poor neighborhoods that really need support and investment,” Philip says.

Watercolor of Lake Michigan. A recent project led by Philip was a 100-year plan for the economic and environmental renewal of the Great Lakes region. Painting by Philip Enquist

The Mojave desert, where Philip grew up. Photo by Philip Enquist

Watercolor of a Tennessee landscape. Painting by Philip Enquist