About
KBLA provides landscape architectural and urban design services for public, campus, and private spaces, with projects centered around sustainability, consensus, and considered design for beautiful built work.
While the final goal is for all the good things (preservation, sustainable or reclaimed material, water management, native plants) built in beautiful and timeless configurations, we also focus on the process. Our process involves working towards the agency, institutional, client approvals through drawings, rendering and community review in order to reach consensus; the built work is the final goal, but we also focus on the act of reaching larger agreement.
We are currently NY State WBE certified.
Krista Bentson
Krista Bentson started the design practice in 2023 after two decades of focusing on nyc’s public sphere while at acclaimed design firms.
Her work over the last two decades has involved the design of publicly accessible spaces to renovate or reimagine parks, streetscapes, plazas, and multiple waterfront sites. The great majority of her projects have required collaboration with city and regulatory agencies in addition to collaboration with design teams, artists, and clients. The main focus for all projects of any scale has been on craft and design detail, in addition to a larger vision for resiliency and sustainability.
Krista Bentson is currently licensed as a landscape architect in NY State.
Chris Liao
Chris Liao is a landscape and urban designer who has worked internationally at a range of scales including district masterplans and guidelines, waterfront trails, campuses, parks, plazas, gardens, and art installations. His interdisciplinary background and experience informs a holistic design approach that combines systems-thinking with a careful attention to architectural and environmental detail. In work and life, Chris’ enduring interest is in the cultural significance of landscapes, their materials and processes, and how we might respect, steward, and share them together as common ground.