Colin Deleo

Background

About Colin Deleo

I am a young professional looking to start my career in the landscape architecture field. For most of my life I have been fascinated, as well as confused, by the relationship humans have with our environment. One evening, while in an American city, it struck me that every detail in my sight - the buildings, the parks, the roads - had all been carefully planned out and constructed by human hands. For the first time I saw the constructed environment as being deeply involved with our society and what it means to be human. I decided to study architecture so that I could not only understand the constructed environment, but also be a part of its development. I thought I might become a botanist or a biologist, as I was initially taking courses such as biology and environmental studies at The University of Connecticut, a Tier 1 research university, before changing direction and transferring to Parsons to study architecture. During my time at Parsons, I encountered a tremendous balance of technical skills and bespoke design skills. Professors always instilled the value of using both left brain and right brain in design, and the importance of top down and bottom up processes. I learned to draft and model by hand, and then with CAD softwares such as Vectorworks, AutoCAD, Rhino, and the Adobe Creative Suite. I find the best design and representation can come from a composite of both digital and analog methods. I can use my skills to see how the sun affects architecture by using a physical model with a sundial and peg, and also in Rhino with Grasshopper plugins. I have conducted extensive social and environmental research on every project site as the first step in the design process. This can include, but is certainly not limited to: population behavior, demographics, sun and wind patterns, humidity levels, and topography. All factors must be considered in order to create a design that functions well at both macro and micro scales. According to the QS World Rankings, Parsons School of Design has been ranked the #1 best Design school in the country, and #3 worldwide for five years in a row; and I am proud to have graduated from this institution with a 3.9/4 GPA. The field of architecture excites me and my hope is to be a deliberate contributor at firm and grow professionally for years to come. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and learn more about me.