Praxis in Landscape Architecture

Jack Dangermond (esri.com)

I’m tempted to say “I ♥ Jack Dangermond,” but … I do REALLY like him! He is the very inspirational president of ESRI, Environmental Systems Research Institute, the company that produces ArcGIS software, and he is a landscape planner from way back. The profile in the NY Times reveals his personality beautifully. He has somehow managed to keep his company privately held since its founding 42 years ago. He could have sold out so easily many years ago, but he is passionate about his work. When I met him a few years ago at a small specialists’ conference, we heard that he had just pulled an all-nighter on a big project – not because he had to, of course, but because he was so caught up in it that he wanted to. (FYI – If you are a job-seeker, you should really read the article. Jack discusses interviews and what ESRI looks for in new hires.)

Jack Dangermond has a degree in landscape architecture, and he began his company around the time that he was a student at Harvard’s GSD, working in the lab run by Howard Fisher (the Laboratory for Computer Graphics and Spatial Analysis, credited with being one of the first university labs to develop geographic information systems). I learned in the Times article that Jack grew up in a family-run nursery. In addition to the nursery business, he still identifies with landscape architecture and funded a graduate fellowship with the Landscape Architecture Foundation to encourage more LA students to pursue innovative GIS-based studies. The nursery experience had a big effect on Jack, as revealed in the article:

Q.So, at 16, you’re managing a crew.  I assume that these people were older than you.  

A. Yes. We worked as a team. Part of my management style today is not being elitist, but rather being involved with the people doing the actual work. On the landscape crew I learned a lot from the other workers. We  treated everybody equally, and we worked hard.  I also remember my father and I were once walking through the nursery, and one of the plants was wilting.  And he said, “Did you notice something?”

I looked down and realized the plant was wilting.  He said: “Don’t ever walk by a wilting plant. Get water on it right away.”  Which sort of stuck with me — you inherently have responsibilities to take care of things. In a nursery, if you don’t take care of those plants, your profits get lost real quickly.  You have to weed.  You have to water.  You have to nurture.  Also, you have to take care of your employees in such a way that they do the same.

He also says that he occasionally works on special projects with his Redlands office landscape crew on Saturdays.

A. I like to work with them. We plant trees, move rocks or do different things.  I like it. It’s really like nobody’s in charge. Each person has skills and steps in. It’s like a piece of music, like jazz. People play off each other.  Jazz is a good metaphor for this kind of management — it requires that people trust each other.