Peter Olin
Since coming to Minnesota twenty-nine years ago, Peter Olin has become a major figure in the state's landscape architecture and horticultural tradition.
Olin is currently the Director of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and has overseen its growth into one of the major public gardens of the Midwest, with strong educational programs, model gardens, and the Horticultural Research Center. Some highlights of his tenure include the construction of the new Children's Learning Center Addition, the Horticulture Therapy Lab, the addition to Andersen Horticultural Library, as well as the creation of Spring Peeper Meadow, a frequently cited wetland restoration, model parking lot and roadside planting, and currently under construction, a model parking lot rain garden and a runoff model. In addition, Olin has progressively increased the amount of donations given to the arboretum, in the current year helping raise over $10 million. He has led the Arboretum's comprehensive campaign which in five years has raised $60 million.
In addition to his duties as Director, Olin is an adjunct professor in landscape architecture (having also been department chair), as well as full professor in the Department of Horticultural Science. He is a frequent speaker on issues in landscape architecture, arboretum management, and fund-raising, in addition to consulting for arboreta around the country.
In 1993, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) named Olin a Fellow. He is also a former president of the Minnesota Chapter of the ASLA and past president of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA).
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