Joseph Brown

1947 - 2024

Joseph Brown
06/18/1947 - 10/31/2024
Joseph Edward Brown, born on June 18th, 1947, in Laurel, Maryland to the late Eleanor Brown and the late Joseph Brown, passed away at age 77 on October 31st, 2024, in San Francisco, California. He was a graduate of Laurel High School, Catholic University Washington D.C. with a degree in Architecture, and Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) with the degree of Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design in 1972. Joe was a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and a Lifetime Trustee of the Urban Land Institute.
Joe was the loving husband of Jacinta McCann for 23 years. He is survived by his daughters Kristin Blanco and Erin Manelski, and his son Richard Joseph Brown (Jody); sisters Pat Ferrill and Ellen Brown; and grandchildren Anthony and Anabel Blanco, and Henry and James Blake.
Joe and Jacinta met while working at EDAW and enjoyed many shared interests both in their professional and personal lives. Joe enjoyed cycling and running and being outdoors. He particularly loved staying at their beach house in Sydney, Australia. Joe enjoyed many family occasions in New York, London and Hong Kong with his children, and later with his grandchildren.
Joe had a love of architecture from when he was a child and developed his early skill in interpreting the world as the school photographer at Laurel High School. Joe was awarded a scholarship to study in Fontainbleu, France while at Catholic University and this became a formative experience in his development as a designer. After graduating from Harvard Joe worked at the New York Housing Authority before joining EDAW's Southern California office in 1974, then moving to Alexandria, VA in 1976 to open a new EDAW office there. In 1992 Joe moved to EDAW's San Francisco headquarters office as President, becoming Chief Executive Officer soon thereafter.
Under Joe's leadership at EDAW, the firm grew from 150 people based in the United States to 1800 people located in multiple offices around the globe with a practice in landscape architecture, urban planning and design, resource management, and economic development. More than 100 Principals in the firm carried Joe's visionary leadership forward in their work. In 2005 EDAW joined AECOM, a diversified engineering firm, with 18,000 people. This was a strategic move led by Joe to enable the firm to collaborate at the scale needed to tackle the complex large scale urban infrastructure challenges facing cities. Joe led the Planning, Design and Development business line within AECOM, and subsequently became AECOM's Chief Innovation Officer prior to his retirement at age 69 in 2016. During Joe's tenure at AECOM, it grew to more than 45,000 people and became publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Joe was an aggressive voice in his profession's move toward realizing broader collaboration among disciplines, greater professional visibility and outreach, and being involved early in the strategic resolution of diverse land and community-based challenges. He was committed to the fusion of sustainable resource management with enduring and distinguished physical design. Joe directed numerous projects both in the United States and abroad, including the Monumental Core Plan Washington D.C.; the Carter Presidential Library Atlanta; the West Florida Lands Strategic Plan for one million acres in Florida's panhandle; Liberty Park and the streets and public realm at the World Trade Center, New York; Tokyo Midtown, Japan; and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Washington D.C.
Joe received numerous awards in his career including the 2009 American Society of Landscape Architects Medal, and the 2019 Landscape Architecture Foundation Medal.
Joe's funeral will be held on Monday 11th November at 10:00 am at St. Ignatius Church, 650 Parker Street, San Francisco, followed by a reception at 2:00 pm at the University Club, 800 Powell Street.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation online to either The Joe Brown and Jacinta McCann Fund for Faculty Research at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, or the Landscape Architecture Foundation with a note that the donation is in honor of Joe Brown.