Mikyoung Kim was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Korean parents. From the age of 6, Kim was a serious pianist and continued her passion for performing into her early twenties at Oberlin Conservatory. While at Oberlin College, Kim also studied sculpture. She graduated with a BS in Sculpture/Art History in 1989. She subsequently studied landscape architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, graduating in 1992. At Harvard, she studied concurrently at the GSD and at the MIT VES department, developing designs, sculpture, installations and videos. While at Harvard, she was the Norman T. Newton Scholar and received the Jacob Weidenmann Prize for Design.
Career
Mikyoung Kim Design
From 1992- 1994, Kim worked as Hargreaves Associates before starting her own firm. Her firm's projects include the ChonGae Canal restoration in Seoul, Korea the Crown Sky Garden in Chicago, IL the Chicago Botanic Garden, the Plaza at the Prudential at 888 Boylston in Boston, the John Hancock Tower Roof Garden in Boston, MA, and Pier 4 Seaport Plaza in Boston, MA. The firm is best known for designing healing gardens, including the Crown Sky Garden at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, the Boston Children’s Hospital Longwood Entrance, and the Miami Healing Garden at the Jackson South Community Hospital. The ChonGae Canal in Seoul, South Korea opened in 2005. The Canal includes the conversion of one of the city’s polluted waterways into a local amenity that attracts 90,000 pedestrians a day. She is the recipient of the Smithsonian Museum Cooper Hewitt Design Award, the American Society of Landscape Architects Design Medal and her firm was named in 2019 by Fast Company as one of the world's most innovative businesses. Her work is featured in the Smithsonian Museum American Voices Collection. In 2019 she was appointed by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as Commissioner of the Boston Civic Design Commission.
Academia
In 1994 she became a full time faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design and opened her own firm in Boston, MA. She was a Professor at Rhode Island School of Design from 1994-2012 and was the Department Head at RISD for five years. She has taught a variety of design and sculpture studios and seminars. Since 2012, Kim has held a Professor Emerita position. She has also taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design from 2017-2018 as a Design Critic in Landscape Architecture. In Fall 2018 Kim held the Glimcher Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University.
Recent Awards
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Museum National Design Award for Landscape Architecture American Society of Landscape Architects Design Medal 2019: Mikyoung Kim Design awarded Fast Company Worlds Most Innovative Companies - Architecture AD Innovator by Architectural Digest 2017: ASLA National Honor Award, Chicago Botanic Garden, Glencoe, USA 2010: Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design, Harvard University for ChonGae Canal in Seoul, South Korea - Architecture
