5 Under 40 Winner Edward Adams

Portrait by Bruce Rogovin

Photograph by Jim Westphalen

Photograph by Michael Morgan

Photograph by Ivar Bastress

Photograph by Nat Rea

Interior designers frequently talk about “bringing the outside in”—using colors and materials that create continuity between indoors and out. For Edward (Ted) Adams, a key to successful landscape design involves bringing the inside out. “When you extend the geometry of architectural forms into the landscape, that’s really powerful,” he says.

With a professional gardener mother and a woodworker father, it seems Adams comes by his talent for landscape architecture naturally. “I was always interested in architecture. My dad worked with a lot of builders, so I’d go to sites and help him,” he recalls. “And I spent a lot of time in the garden with my mom.”

While working toward his BA in architectural studies at Connecticut College, Adams took a landscape architecture class. “I got hooked,” he says. The Maine native went on to earn a master’s in landscape architecture from Boston Architectural College, then worked at several Boston-area firms before getting back to his more rural roots by moving to Vermont and taking a job at Wagner Hodgson Landscape Architecture, where he’s now a principal.

Good landscape architecture goes beyond beauty. “When we approach a site, we look at its context and the ecosystem surrounding it. We try to be as light on the land as we can, and not cause any major disturbances,” he explains. “We also try to expose a site’s inherent beauty and its context, using native plants and other local materials.”

Adams is as happy at the drawing board with a fistful of colored pencils as he is digging in the dirt. From working closely with clients to craft a design scheme to selecting plant materials to seeing the final result, there’s no aspect of the work he doesn’t enjoy. And when he’s not on the clock, he can be found in his own yard. “That’s where I do my experimenting with plants,” he says.