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Who Martha Desbiens is—and what ties her story together
Desbiens is identified in the interview as a principal at Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects (MNLA) with 22 years in the industry. The profile appeared in Building Enclosure’s “International Women’s Day in Design” series on March 16, 2026; MNLA’s press listing gives the same title and date. Her comments are personal professional perspectives, not an independent audit of a project or an evaluation of her firm’s employment practices.
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A consistent idea runs through her answers: design decisions should acknowledge systems that change over time while making places work better for people. That means considering seasonal cycles, water, plant lifespans and ecological processes alongside circulation, teaching, comfort and long-term value. It also means treating leadership as a form of care—supporting colleagues, building durable relationships and making room for family life.
How an interest in architecture became a commitment to landscape
The early influences
Desbiens entered college intending to study architecture. A high-school counselor had encouraged that direction, and she was drawn to art and confident in geometry. Architecture therefore appeared to fit both her creative interests and her strengths in technical thinking.
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The course that changed her direction
During her junior year, an interdisciplinary course introduced her to landscape architecture. She says the landscape faculty offered a different way of understanding design: one grounded in living systems rather than only in objects or structures. In her words, “The landscape faculty introduced a way of thinking that resonated deeply with me, one that acknowledged the complexity of living systems, from seasonal rhythms and lifespans to hydrology and ecological processes.”
This explanation matters because it describes landscape architecture as an active, time-based discipline. A building can be documented at a particular moment; a landscape continues to grow, drain, shade, host organisms and change with weather. Desbiens’s account suggests that the attraction was not simply working outdoors. It was learning to design with processes whose behavior unfolds over years.
What aspiring designers can take from that path
- Look for cross-disciplinary exposure. Desbiens found her direction through a course that connected fields rather than narrowing her choices early.
- Notice which questions hold your attention. Her turning point came from questions about hydrology, ecological processes and lifespans—questions that architecture alone had not made central for her.
- Keep creative and analytical skills together. Her story does not treat art and geometry as competing abilities; both helped prepare her for landscape work.
Kathleen McCartney Hall: a project organized around ecology and use
Desbiens singles out the landscape installation for Kathleen McCartney Hall at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. She says MNLA had been shaping Smith’s landscape vision since developing a landscape master plan in 2020, and that the hall landscape was the first project the firm carried through construction under that vision.
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The interview describes a group of connected moves rather than a single visual gesture. The table below keeps the intended function of each move separate from its documented status.
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| Design move described by Desbiens | Purpose in the project account | What the interview reports |
|---|---|---|
| Low-mow grasses and meadows replacing lawns | Shift planting away from conventional high-maintenance lawn toward a more ecologically oriented landscape. | The planting approach was part of the installation; no measured biodiversity, maintenance, carbon or cost result is published. |
| Rain gardens | Capture and manage stormwater within the landscape. | Rain gardens were included; the interview gives no runoff-volume, peak-flow or water-quality measurements. |
| Universal access between the campus core and the pond | Make a key campus connection usable by people with different mobility needs. | Universal access is identified as a project priority; no audit, user study or post-occupancy accessibility result is reported. |
| Outdoor classroom | Extend teaching and gathering beyond enclosed rooms. | An outdoor classroom was provided; the interview does not quantify classes, attendance or learning outcomes. |
| Occupiable green roof | Combine roof-space occupation with landscape and outdoor learning opportunities. | The roof is described as occupiable; no use data, thermal performance or stormwater result is supplied. |
Why the 2020 master plan is important
Desbiens places the hall landscape inside a longer planning process. The 2020 master plan preceded the construction project, so the installation is presented as an implementation of a campus-wide landscape vision rather than an isolated treatment around one building. That sequence can help owners and project teams avoid a common problem: asking a single project to solve circulation, ecology and identity without a framework for how those decisions relate across a campus.
What can—and cannot—be claimed about performance
The interview establishes the intended and provided features, but it does not publish measured ecological, hydrological, accessibility or educational outcomes. It would therefore be inaccurate to claim that the project reduced flooding, increased biodiversity, improved grades or delivered a quantified maintenance saving. Those questions would require monitoring, post-occupancy observation or other documentation not included in the interview.
Designing with nature as a working method
Desbiens’s project description shows a method with several layers. Planting and stormwater are treated as functioning infrastructure; paths are considered in relation to universal access; and teaching spaces extend into the landscape and onto the roof. None of those layers has to be sacrificed for the others when they are coordinated from the beginning.
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A living-systems approach asks where water moves, how vegetation changes through seasons, which spaces need to remain available during construction and how people will use a place at different times of day and year. The finish schedule still matters, but it follows a larger understanding of performance over time.
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Make ecological work visible and usable
The Smith project, as Desbiens presents it, puts ecological functions in places people can encounter: planting that replaces conventional lawn, rain gardens that make water management part of the landscape, and a roof that can be occupied. Visibility can turn sustainability from an invisible technical claim into something students, visitors and facilities staff can understand and discuss.
Coordinate specialists around shared outcomes
Landscape architects, architects, civil engineers, accessibility specialists, educators and facilities teams may describe success differently. A shared project brief can connect those definitions before details are fixed. Desbiens’s account does not prescribe a particular contract or delivery method, but the combination of water, access, planting and learning in one installation demonstrates why early coordination matters.
Leading with care: the influence of Signe Nielsen
Desbiens credits MNLA founding principal Signe Nielsen as both an inspiration and an advocate. She describes Nielsen as having built the firm while raising a family as a single parent and says Nielsen created a family-friendly firm culture. These are Desbiens’s recollections and interpretations; they should not be presented as an independently verified assessment of MNLA’s current employment conditions.
Why that example matters to Desbiens
Mentorship appears in her story as more than technical instruction. Nielsen modeled a way to lead a design practice while acknowledging responsibilities outside work, and she advocated for Desbiens’s growth. That combination—opening doors and demonstrating a humane way to occupy leadership—helps explain why Desbiens links professional advancement with care.
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A practical leadership reading
For firms and project leaders, the lesson is not to copy a slogan but to make support legible in daily work. Clear expectations, realistic deadlines, credit for contributions, access to senior advice and respect for caregiving responsibilities are examples of conditions that allow people to develop. The interview does not list MNLA policies, so these should be understood as implications for readers, not claims about the firm.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Desbiens’s sustainability outlook: challenging, hopeful and broader than carbon
Desbiens says the current moment is both challenging and hopeful. Changes in regulation and shifting priorities can create uncertainty for designers and owners, yet they can also open space for better definitions of value. She argues that sustainability should be discussed through environmental benefit together with economic resilience, performance and social value.
Her formulation is explicit: “There has also been a meaningful shift toward framing sustainability in more inclusive terms, highlighting not only environmental benefits but also the economic resilience, performance, and social value that sustainable design can deliver.” This is a professional viewpoint, not a quantified industry survey or a claim of consensus.
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- Environmental: What living systems are supported, restored or protected, and how will changes be observed?
- Economic: How might the design remain resilient as maintenance needs, regulations, weather patterns or budgets change?
- Performance: Which outcomes can the team measure, such as water behavior, accessibility, use patterns or operational demands?
- Social: Who can use the space, who feels welcome there and what learning, gathering or health benefits are intended?
Using all four questions prevents “sustainable” from becoming a label attached only to planting or materials. It also makes trade-offs visible. A feature that looks ecologically promising still needs a maintenance plan, an access review and a realistic account of how people will use it.
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Her advice to women entering architecture and the wider AEC field
Build relationships before you need them
Desbiens’s clearest advice is concise: “Build a strong network early, especially while you’re in school.” She describes graduate-school peers as an enduring source of encouragement, practical advice, personal support and collaboration. The network included people in architecture and planning as well as landscape architecture.
Turn that advice into a deliberate practice
- Start with peers. Keep in touch with classmates whose interests differ from yours. Cross-disciplinary relationships can become project partnerships or trusted sounding boards.
- Ask for specific help. A question about a portfolio, a technical detail or a difficult workplace decision is easier to answer than a general request to “be a mentor.”
- Offer help as well as seeking it. Mutual support is more durable than a one-way contact list. Share opportunities, review work and make introductions when you can.
- Include personal support. Desbiens’s description of her graduate peers includes encouragement and personal care, not only job leads. Make room for relationships that sustain people through demanding periods.
- Keep the network active across career changes. Contacts from school may later become collaborators, clients, advocates or colleagues in adjacent professions.
Her point is not that networking replaces skill. It is that technical growth and opportunity are easier to sustain when people have a community that can provide context, candor and collaboration.
A project checklist inspired by the interview
The following sequence translates the themes Desbiens describes into questions a construction or design team can use. It is an application of her ideas, not a reported checklist from MNLA.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11- Map the living systems first. Document water paths, soils, existing vegetation, seasonal changes and likely maintenance conditions before finalizing the site concept.
- Define human outcomes alongside ecological ones. State who needs to move through the site, where teaching or gathering may occur and which spaces must remain usable in different weather conditions.
- Test alternatives against long-term care. Compare planting, drainage and hardscape choices by maintenance demand, durability, access and resilience—not only by installation appearance.
- Coordinate the building and landscape. Resolve roof access, grading, drainage, utilities, entrances and construction sequencing together so ecological features are not value-engineered away late.
- Make responsibilities explicit. Assign who will inspect drainage, care for vegetation, review accessible routes and manage occupied outdoor areas after handover.
- Set a measurement plan. Decide what evidence would show whether the project is working: water observations, plant establishment, route usability, space occupancy or facilities feedback. The Smith interview reports no such results, so a future team should plan them rather than assume them.
What this interview contributes—and where its boundaries are
Desbiens provides a coherent professional narrative: an interdisciplinary education led her toward landscape architecture; the Smith College project put ecological and social goals together; Nielsen’s example shaped her view of supportive leadership; and a strong network helped sustain her career. Those points are useful because they connect design decisions to the people and systems that make them possible.
The account is not a performance study. It does not provide measured stormwater capture, biodiversity change, accessibility testing, educational use, operating cost, carbon accounting or employment statistics. Readers should treat the project features as described priorities and provisions, and treat the sustainability and workplace observations as Desbiens’s perspective.
The larger lesson: care is a design constraint, not an afterthought
Desbiens’s approach joins two forms of attention that are often separated. Designing with nature means accepting that landscapes have rhythms, limits and consequences over time. Leading with care means recognizing that projects are delivered by people who need mentorship, support and relationships. In her telling, the strongest work does not choose between ecological ambition and human needs; it plans for both from the outset.
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