Lauren Cantrell, Design Inspirations Panelist; The Dallas Architecture Forum 2024, Reflections
Photo Credit: Stefania Morandi (thank you) Lauren shares original inspiration to become a designer “with a stance” in two enduring inspiring books to her: The Radiant City by Le Corbusier and the collective publication of Archigram.
Lauren Cantrell, participated as a speaker panelist on the Dallas Architecture Forum’s Design Inspirations Panel earlier this year.
The panel discussion was held at the Angelika Theater in Dallas on April 16, 2024. It was moderated by Meg Fitzpatrick and included Chris ANGELLE of Chris Angelle Design, Lauren CANTRELL of DELINEATOR, and Michael MALONE, FAIA of Malone Maxwell and Dennehy Architects.
Lauren has been a Co-Founder and Owner at DELINEATOR since 2017. Below are excerpts and expansions on Lauren’s inspirations and career journey. You can learn more about Lauren Cantrell and get in touch with her here.
[Scroll through Story for YouTube video recording by The Dallas Architecture Forum.]
“The Dallas Architecture Forum has been my source of inspiration and design community in Dallas since 2015. I saw the first Design Inspirations panel at the Temple Emanu-El in 2016 and hearing insights from legendary local architects on their experiences leveraging design rigor and excellence while balancing running a practice was a major source of inspiration for me to take the leap in 2017 in founding DELINEATOR.”
Lauren Cantrell, “Design Ethos” + Mississippi River, 2024,
“I began my college career in journalism, which provided me with training in telling stories, but I discovered design was the medium by which I was most passionate to explore true un-biased storytelling. I learned of Landscape Architecture through my courses in Architecture + Architecture History. Understanding the history of the world again through the lens of the built environment completely resonated with my soul. In 2005, following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on my hometown, I decided to change my major to Landscape Architecture and pursue a career focused on collaboratively designing for resilience in communities and the environments they aim to thrive within.”
Image by Lauren Cantrell, Artwork Co-Collaboration with Midjouney AI.
“I am deeply inspired, as most of us are, by the landscape that I grew up in, my origin: the Lower Mississippi Delta, New Orleans and the banks surrounding the City. The Barataria Preserve and slow-moving mystical waters of the Lafitte swamp and the magical qualities of light passing through the live oak trees in City Park were in complement to the vibrant culture and celebration that occurred in community gatherings in public spaces. I came from a working class family and it felt equitable growing up to celebrate life. Joining family in parks, watching lakefront sunsets, sharing food, music made it easy to feel spiritually connected to a city, a community. People were deeply connected to neighbors by their experience of the landscape in both its unique beauty as well as its geographical challenges. The reality of living in a vulnerable Gulf Coast region yielded an intrinsic understanding I can’t fathom grasping if I grew up in another place. When I left Louisiana as an adult, it reiterated its affect on shaping my perspective. Not all cities can be New Orleans, but I believe as Landscape Architects we have the opportunity to collaborate with others to find less ways of homogenizing the built environment, but rather celebrating the temporal context we build alongside.”
Course taught by Cathy Marshall at the Robert S. Reich School of Landscape Architecture at Louisiana State University. Team Member Credits: Michael Griffith, Adam Duplantier, Lauren Cantrell, Work above by Lauren Cantrell.
“Pictured above are some samples of my earliest work as a student from a 2007 Studio Course focused on urban design through the lens of infrastructure. Our groups’ focus was on Electricity. We spent months documenting analysis through wreckage that had such powerful feelings. Eventually we created a master plan for the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans following the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. The design aimed to stitch history and the community in a resilient re-building, that focused on a productive landscape that could be flooded, using sugar cane to create fuel and stimulating the economy by opening a vocational school where solar technology and solar farming could thrive thus contributing to a long-term holistic approach to “re-building”. This work’s impacts have had a long lasting inspiration on my interests in urban confluence and the power of planning”
The Dallas Architecture Forum featured three outstanding local designers for its Spring 2024 Design Inspirations Panel. View this video for the rare opportunity to learn about what inspires some of our area’s most talented design leaders in their creative process. The Panelists share about life experiences, educational opportunities, and creative disciplines outside of their field that inform their work. They also touch briefly on a few of their projects. The Panel was moderated by Meg Fitzpatrick, President and Founder of MMF Strategies. Panelists were Chris ANGELLE, Founder of Chris Angelle Design; Lauren CANTRELL, PLA, ASLA, Principal of DELINEATOR Design; and Michael MALONE, FAIA, Founding Principal of Malone Maxwell Dennehy Architects. Presented on April 16, 2024, this Panel gives viewers insights into what inspires the Panelists to create their dynamic projects. Please support The Forum, a non-profit organization, at https://dallasarchitectureforum.org/d.... so we can continue to present lectures and events featuring design thought leaders that educate, connect communities, and enhance how we live.
(Credit: The Dallas Architecture Forum)
Reflections, Inspirations + Gratitude for Design Community
Special thanks to the Dallas Architecture Forum, Nate Eudaly, Meg Fitzpatrick, Chris Angelle, Michael Malone, and all of my incredible friends and mentors in the Dallas Design Community. Thank you so much to all the panelists in the past who shared their inspirations and to the Forum for the lecture events that kept me connected, spiritually, to design. It has meant so much to me to grow within the community and look up to the diverse talent of Dallas past to present. I worked across the world and Texas before moving to Dallas in 2015 and I found a welcoming, empowering, inspiring network of architects and designers that felt like home. I aim to also inspire others through teaching in a new part-time endeavor I began this Fall of 2024 as Professor of Practice in Architecture and Landscape Architecture at The School of Architecture at the University of Virginia. I am still working out of our office in Texas and traveling between the two places as many in Dallas are linked to regions across the world… my heart is always in Texas and Dallas specifically.
And special thanks to Max Levy - for his special poetic version of Design Inspirations circa 2018, I believe, where he showed only imagery of the sky in Galveston, Texas and we cried.
Inspirations are important to us
Thanks for checking out my story.
-Lauren Cantrell
