Our Story.
Steele Landscape Architecture is a design firm created from a vision to craft beautiful and expressive places that promote positive impacts on our natural environment and personal health. The firm serves communities and clients across New York, enjoying the varied opportunities and challenges of each project with mindful personal attention and a lot of old-fashioned TCB.
Sue Steele, RLA, founded the studio in 2018 after years of experience on park, campus, public arts, and trail projects in both a small design studio and a large engineering practice. Today our firm includes three licensed Landscape Architects with nearly sixty years of mutually passionate design, construction, and project delivery experience on a wide array of project types. Yet, we approach our work with an absolute desire for learning and new understanding, with an ear for listening, and a spirit of partnership.
Located in Fairport, New York, we are a boutique firm with diverse capabilities and deliberate in the work we pursue. We practice project mindfulness – meaning we take on projects that suit both our knowledge and curiosities, and those that we know we can deliver in a quality manner that is meaningful to both the client and our staff. Our approach is to focus intently on artistic and organized problem solving, and achieve project success through deliberate thinking about core goals, process, the power of expressiveness, and the true value a design brings to the client and community.
Certifications
NYS Registered Landscape Architect
LEED Accredited Professional
NYS Women Business Enterprise (WBE)
City of Rochester WBE
Monroe County WBE
NYC Port Authority of NY & NJ WBE
Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE)
Certified Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB)
Professional Services
Parks & Trails Planning & Design
Public Art Planning & Facilitation
Urban & Streetscape Design
Wayfinding and Interpretive Design
Ecosystem, Pollinator, & Stormwater Planting
Historic Landscape Preservation & Documentation
Campus & Hospitality Venue Design
Healthcare & Therapeutic Design
Residential Estate Planning & Private Gardens
Landscape Architecture
Project design, construction documentation, bid evaluation, and construction administration services for residential, commercial, institutional, and municipal projects.
Site Planning
Master planning services for residential, commercial and institutional properties including phasing and implementations plans.
Additional Services
Support services such as graphic development, 3D modeling, drafting, estimating, specifications, and quality review services.
Nice to meet you.
Sue Steele, RLA, ASLA, LEED-AP
Owner, Landscape Architect
Sue Steele is a Registered Landscape Architect with over 15 years of experience as a steadfast and earnest leader. Her proficiency spans streetscape design, parks, public art planning, trail design, and healthcare facilities. A Rochester-area native, Sue is genuinely committed to her community and actively volunteers in both arts and professional organizations. Her devotion to the landscape centers on crafting environments that foster positive health and environmental impacts, with a particular emphasis on integrating therapeutic design and public art.
Sue’s approach is characterized by an ability to pragmatically separate goals from emotion, a can-do attitude, and an absolute commitment to her clients and the public. Whether leading projects or participating in local initiatives, her influence is marked by a personal touch and a dedication to the welfare of others. Outside the world of landscape architecture, Sue unwinds as a novice foodie, passionately pursuing the next exceptional meal—be it crafting culinary delights in her own kitchen or embarking on food adventures during her travels.
Zakery Steele, RLA, ASLA, LEED-AP
Landscape Architect
Zakery’s more than 20 years of experience includes private and public sector landscape architecture, design and urban planning in New York, Utah and Massachusetts. He has a deep understanding of construction materials and detailing, expertise at site grading, and a respect for and fascination with the complexities of engineering. He’s an observant and thoughtful problem solver and values the intensely hard work involved in carrying projects through to long-term success. Since joining SSLA in 2020, he has spent time focusing on foundational aspects of Landscape Architecture, including plant and soil science, and strategic thinking about why so many designed landscapes don’t perform the way we want them to.
An experimental gardener, a lover of great mountains and deep canyons, and a creative spirit often upended by rational thinking, Zakery has dedicated his life to connecting personally with the landscape in both artistic and systematic ways. He feels at home in a lab and a hot dusty construction site. Raised in both a T-shirt factory and on miles of desert dirt roads, Zakery’s work ethic and respect for the land are prized values. He embraces a personal code of mahi māra, determined to help clients connect with nature through working with the land rather than destroying it.
Ted Liddell, RLA, ASLA
Landscape Architect
Ted Liddell is a Registered Landscape Architect with over 20 years of experience in Western New York and throughout the northeast. He has a wide range of landscape architectural and planning experience, including streetscapes, parks, trails, commercial development, brownfield planning, wayfinding, and urban revitalization. A community-minded and active member of the New York Upstate chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, Ted currently serves on the Ontario County Planning Board. He values multi-disciplinary relationships within the broader architecture and engineering industry and promotes the positive natural and human influences that Landscape Architects bring to planning and infrastructure projects. Ted is a proud father, a curious gardener, and loves a cheerful celebration!