Title
Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture, Professor of Landscape ArchitectureEducation
Master in Landscape Architecture, Harvard University.Bachelor of Landscape Architecture, Syracuse University.
Biography
Professor Bressler was appointed Head of the Department of Landscape Architecture in 2006. Since his arrival at NC State, he has taught the First-Year Fall MLA Design Studio along with Professor Art Rice and has devoted most of his efforts to working with the faculty, students, alumni, and practitioners to revise the MLA and BLA academic programs. He is on the Dean’s Administrative Council and Steering Committee for the College’s Annual Urban Design Forum held each spring and serves on numerous committees within the College and University including the Campus Planning Committee.In Fall 2008, Gene was named by then Chancellor Jim Oblinger to lead the State Employees Combined Campaign. Bressler also sits on the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and has served on its annual professional awards jury for two years. In 2009, Governor Perdue appointed Bressler to the NC Board of Landscape Architects. His areas of research and teaching focus on urban growth, sustainable development, and the planning and design strategies for “Challenging Suburbia.” In June 2009, he co-authored with University of Colorado Professor Allan Wallis the chapter, “Oh Give Me Land, Lots of Land,” for the book Healing the West by Professor Patricia Limerick.
From 1997 to 2006, Bressler served as Chair of the Landscape Architecture Department at the University of Colorado, Denver, College of Architecture and Planning. For several years, Gene co-taught an annual series of advanced interdisciplinary design studios with Architecture Professor Keith Loftin focused on challenging existing residential landscape and architectural design development paradigms. In 2003, he was named Director of the Colorado Center for Sustainable Urbanism and was responsible for producing the highly successful 2004 and 2005 “Colorado Tomorrow” public forum that focused on population and urban growth challenges facing the State. He was a founding member and president of the Colorado Community Design Network and consulting principal for the Denver-based firms Landscape Strategies and Design Studios West. In addition, Gene served as chair of the College’s Information Technologies Committee charged with creating and implementing the College’s Interdisciplinary IT Strategic Plan which included the integration of computer aided design, visualization and modeling, and GIS technologies.
Prior to his work at Colorado, Gene was on the faculty of the University of Oregon, Eugene, from 1971 to 1985. There, his teaching and research activities focused on the development of computer driven suitability modeling technologies used evaluating opportunities and constraints to development, infrastructural costs, environmental impacts, and alternative urban planning and design strategies. This led to his accepting a position from 1985 to 1995 with Dynamic Graphics, Inc., a developer of internationally recognized and highly regarded software used in numerous terrain and land use mapping, modeling, and visualization applications.
In 2006, Bressler was recognized with the national award, Outstanding Administrator of the Year, from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) for his leadership and for his contributions to teaching. In 2007, he was awarded Fellow by the American Society of Landscape Architects.
