Claire Latané (la-ta-nay) is a writer, community advocate, and ecological designer. She practiced landscape architecture for twelve years with EPTDESIGN and Studio-MLA before starting her own consultancy: Design to Support Mental Health and Wellbeing. Claire applies landscape architecture and neuroscience research connecting designed environments with mental health, safety, academic success, and physical and social outcomes to create healthier school and community environments. She organized the very first Designing Schools for Mental Health Workshop with support from the Prevention Institute and the Association for Women in Architecture Foundation. This groundbreaking work has led to collaborations, presentations, and consultations including with the Los Angeles Unified School District, Austin’s Cities Connecting Children to Nature program, Occidental College kinesiology and economics researchers, the Council for Watershed Health, Green Schoolyards America, the Landscape Architecture Foundation, and the American Society of Landscape Architecture.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Physical Activity and Social Behaviors of Urban Children in Green Schoolyards, Dr. Marcella Raney. 2019.
Love and Fear in Los Angeles, by Claire Latané. 2017.
Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation, by Sharon Gamson Danks. 2010.
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Attention Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. 2005.
The Granite Garden, by Anne Whiston Spirn. 1984.
TALKS
For the Love of Teenagers by Claire Latané. LAF Symposium on Innovation and Leadership.
Dr. Magda Mostafa on the ASPECTSS™ of Architecture for Autism
Sarah Williams Goldhagen on Welcome to Your World
ORGANIZATIONS
Landscape and Human Health Laboratory