By Pete Nute
In April, the landscape architecture community takes a moment to look around—at parks, campuses, neighborhoods, and streetscapes—and recognize the thinking behind them. American Society of Landscape Architect’s World Landscape Architecture Month is meant to do exactly that: bring visibility to the people shaping the spaces we move through every day.
For us, it’s also a chance to recognize someone who has spent decades doing that work with determination and consistency: Phil Barlow.
We first came to know Phil through his firm, To Design, a practice he founded in 1987 and led for 35 years. Long before its eventual merger with FHI Studio, To Design had built a reputation across Connecticut for thoughtful, grounded site design—work that never strained for attention but always held up under it.
Phil’s approach was steady and clear-eyed. “I was never interested in ‘putting the green paint’ onto someone else’s work,” he says. “In 95% of my work, I was the prime site consultant. We drive the design and detailing.” It’s a philosophy that positioned landscape architecture not as a finishing touch, but as a lead voice—one that shapes how a place functions, feels, and endures.
His portfolio reflects that mindset. Adaptive reuse projects stand out as personal favorites: the revival of Hartford’s Capewell Horsenail factory into housing after decades of abandonment, the conversion of the former Sealtest Ice Cream headquarters into office space, and the transformation of long-neglected mansions into affordable housing. “Bringing properties back from ruin or obscurity to again be useful to society,” he says, is the kind of work that stays with him.
There’s a throughline in that—an interest in places with history, and in giving them another chapter.
At the same time, Phil never lost sight of how everyday spaces are experienced. Early in his career, he found himself frustrated by the lack of imagination in playground design.
“A play area is not just for the kids,” he says. “If well designed, it can become a community gathering space and resource.” It’s a small shift in perspective, but it opens the door to something larger: spaces that invite people in, rather than simply accommodating them.
That thinking extended across his work—from parks like Bushnell, Colt, and Pope, to school campuses and recreational facilities, even collaborations with skate park designers. The scale changed, the users changed, but the intent stayed.
Phil also built something enduring inside the walls of his own firm. To Design was, by intention, multidisciplinary and landscape architecture–led—at one point among the largest LA-focused firms in Connecticut. Just as important were the internal goals he set: meaningful public spaces, strong relationships among staff and collaborators, and an environment where people could pursue their professional ambitions. Growth came, but never at the expense of those priorities. Being selective about clients, he notes, may have limited the firm’s size, “but let me sleep at night.”
Today, Phil describes his work as a kind of “third act”— consulting, advising, and staying connected to the field, while also making room for other pursuits. Travel, hiking, and watercolor painting now share his attention. There’s a natural symmetry to that shift. After decades spent shaping environments, he’s spending more time simply observing them.
The relationship we built with Phil over the years has always been rooted in that same clarity he brings to his work: thoughtful, collaborative, and grounded in mutual respect. It’s the kind of partnership that doesn’t call attention to itself, but leaves a lasting impression.
World Landscape Architecture Month is about recognizing a profession. This felt like a good moment to recognize a person within it—someone whose work has helped define spaces across Connecticut, and whose approach continues to influence how those spaces are imagined in the first place.
