As an artist, Chelsea received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and sculpture from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. During her time there, she became interested in working with organic materials and land art, while gathering inspiration for paintings from her rock collection; a path that led her to pursue a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Miami, Florida, where she grew up, fostered her love of resilient inland and coastal vegetation, the ocean, and an affinity for the power of natural systems, hurricanes, and the Everglades.

Prior to joining JDDA, Chelsea worked as a designer with a Miami based landscape firm and, most recently, as a project manager for a NYC based firm notable for residential English garden design. Detail oriented site analysis, iterative hand drawing, and artistic representation are at the forefront of informing Chelsea’s design sensibilities. She enjoys accentuating site history and context, landforming and developing plant palettes.