Mark Dawson

Biography

Mark launched his career with Sasaki Associates, Watertown, Massachusetts, immediately after graduating from USU in 1981. He left ten years later to form his own landscape architectural practice in Dallas but returned to Sasaki in 1995. He has since become a principal with the company, overseeing the work of some 250 landscape architects.

Mark has, of course, contributed to numerous projects that have made Sasaki justifiably renowned. The best known of his achievements may be Legoland, the $165 million amusement park in Carlsbad, California. Mark coordinated design and served as overall supervisor and project manager. His work included water features, lighting of landscape ‘showscapes’, and all site improvements.

Mark is the principal in charge of design and implementation of the master plan of water frontage uses for National Harbor in Washington, DC, a development along the Potomac River. His designs will include a new water front promenade, dock space, plazas, and landscape along the entire two miles of the development’s river frontage.

Other highlights of his work as a landscape architect and planner include the Green Garden Residential Development in Jakarta, Indonesia; the Hayden Library Expansion at Arizona State University in Tempe; and the Choctaw Center and Resort and the Choctaw Casino in Philadelphia, Mississippi.

A member of ASLA, Mark is registered in 10 states, as well as with CLARB (the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards). He is a member of the LAEP Advisory Board.