Caleb Melchior’s Biography
Caleb Melchior is a landscape architect and planting designer with Coastal Vista Design, and he teaches Professional Practice, Theory of Landscape Architecture, and Ecological Planting Design at Florida International University. His practice centers on planting design and materiality, with a focus on wild plant communities of the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. He has experience designing fine gardens, estates, and public spaces throughout the southeast United States including P. Allen Smith and Associates in Little Rock, Arkansas and ASA Engineering in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He collaborates with other designers, horticulture experts, and landscape management teams to make sure that design ideas are realized throughout installation and the ongoing life of projects. Caleb is heavily involved with design communication. He presents frequently at landscape and horticulture-related conferences. His work is regularly published in national and international publications such as The American Gardener, Horticulture, and Land8.
You can find him at his website www.calebmelchior.com and on Instagram at @the_curious_gardener.
SHOW NOTES
How Caleb got interested in plants
Lessons learned at Sugar Creek Gardens in Kirkwood, MO
The pursuit of landscape architecture at Kansas State University
Embracing Bauhaus principles in design
The impact of Konza Prairie
Caleb’ research on experiential learning and legibility in plant communities in public gardens with his thesis, “Knowledge gardens: designing public gardens for transformative experience of dynamic vegetation”
Caleb’s research sites at Champan Botanical Garden and The Meadow at Kansas State University
The importance of working at different places and lessons Caleb learned at Confluence, RS Walsh, P. Allen Smith and Associates, ASA Engineering, and Coastal Vista Design
The importance of practice in learning, reading, and watching videos like Garden Masterclass and Caleb’s curated list on Land8
What a typical day looks like for Caleb and the design process at a site
Designing and planting with regulations
Growing In Mind, a podcast by Caleb Melchior and Preston Montague
How the green industry and smaller studios can adopt models and strategies for solving problems
The importance of communicating with clients and how to improve communication with clients
Recognizing patterns of thinking in the design process
How to Make Art at the End of the World by Natalie Loveless
Understanding what clients want and blending their priorities with the principles of design
The importance of spaces to sit in the landscape
Excitement for umbellifers (Apiaceae)
Cutting herbaceous plants back to improve growth
The effort to connect horticulture with others by being present in the public