Lesia Mokrycke

Lesia Mokrycke
Special (Sessional) Faculty - ARCH-293.001,
Status: Active

Biography

Lesia Mokrycke is the founder of Tropos, a multidisciplinary landscape studio based in Hamilton. She is recognized as a contemporary voice for art and landscape architecture in Canada and is known for her creative, conceptual, and contemplative approach to shaping distinctive landscapes.

Lesia leads urban design, restoration, and environmental art processes to develop projects that address issues of climate adaptation. Her work focuses on water, rethinking relationship with atmospheric cycles and their relation to sensory experience, environmental infrastructure and the degradation of urban forests. She brings a wealth of knowledge from fifteen years of experience as a public artist to each landscape architectural project she undertakes.

Lesia works extensively with local municipalities to develop educational content that advances public knowledge and is the recipient of several awards including two grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, and an Education in Heritage award from the Hamilton Natural Heritage Committee. She lectures widely and is recognized for her contributions to the conservation, restoration, and preservation of Hamilton's natural heritage.

Lesia worked with leading landscape architects in Seattle, Zürich, and Vancouver before returning to Hamilton to establish Tropos. She has been an Artist in Residence at Halls Island, Haliburton, ON; the Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, AB; and Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT.

Lesia earned a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Art from the Design School at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. She has a combined Bachelor of Fine Art from the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences, where she studied painting, sculpture, comparative literature and graduated with honors.

Research Interests

  • Landscape Architecture
  • Urban Design
  • Environmental Infrastructure
  • Climate Systems
  • Urban Forest
  • Social Practice

Education

  • 2021, Master of Landscape Architecture, University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, PA
  • 2020, Master of Art, University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, PA
  • 2011, Bachelor of Fine Art, University of Pennsylvania; Philadelphia, PA (combined with PAFA)
  • 2009, Bachelor of Fine Art, Painting, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; Philadelphia, PA

Awards

  • 2024 Hamilton Natural Heritage Committee
  • 2023 Canada Council for the Arts
  • 2021 Canada Council for the Arts
  • 2019 Christopher Lyon Memorial Award for the Arts
  • 2015 Albert F. Schenck-Henry Gillette Woodman Award for Landscape Architecture
  • 2014 Banff Centre for the Arts
  • 2009 Scheidt Travel Scholarship for the Arts
  • 2008 Lance Roy Lauffer Memorial Prize for the Arts
  • 2007 Sylvia G. Wexler Memorial Award for the Arts
  • 2006 Rambourger Prize for the Arts

Professional Associations

  • OALA
  • CSLA

Teaching*

  • ARCH 293 - Design Studio
    • Taught in 2024

* Only courses taught in the past 5 years are displayed.

In The News

Graduate studies

  • Not currently accepting applications for graduate students