Fred Besancon

Fred’s first career was architecture, working on a diverse array of private and public projects across California. Wanting to broaden his understanding of site and learn how to create evocative outdoor places, Fred enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where his studies focused primarily on landscape architecture’s inherent capacity for changes and adaptations from the given environment and users. Upon leaving RISD, he received his department’s travel fellowship to study how community spaces can be infused into storm- and wastewater systems. One of this student projects, a proposal for a Berlin Wall Memorial, won ASLA’s Award of Excellence in General Design in its annual international competition. In 2011 he won Environmental Form’s idea competition to redesign San Diego’s Horton Plaza. Fred is licensed architect, landscape architect, and an adjunct faculty member at the NewSchool of Architecture and Design.