MEANINGFUL. ARTFUL. SUSTAINABLE.
About WOLF TREE
WOLF TREE WAS ESTABLISHED IN 2022 BY GWEN ADRIENNE HEERSCHAP.
We provide in-depth, professional services in landscape architecture ranging from site master planning, detail design, construction documentation and project coordination. Our commitment to promoting a healthy microcosm means we strive to integrate native plantings into all of our concepts. From a small Brooklyn backyard to a 20-acre site, our work seeks to enhance landscapes to their full biological and aesthetic potential.
Wolf Tree’s approach is collaborative and contextual; we consider our clients team members, and we work closely with them to create meaningful, artful outdoor spaces. We value interdisciplinary collaboration with experts including artisans and local craftspeople, architects, engineers and ecologists.
Gwen Heerschap is Wolf Tree’s principal landscape architect, alongside our staff landscape architect. We work on site and out of our studio in historic downtown Essex, Connecticut.
MEET GWEN
Gwen Heerschap grew up in the garden beds of her New Jersey childhood home. She was inspired to pursue landscape architecture because it allows her to channel her creative energy and spend time outdoors. Gwen’s design work is unique and intuitive. She is sensitive to the land and clients' goals, while developing inspiring spaces that help tell the story of their surroundings.
Gwen studied landscape architecture at Rutgers University and consulted as a designer for the National Park Service before spending nine years with award-winning landscape architecture firm Anne Penniman Associates. It was there that Gwen built lasting client relationships that she carried with her after her former boss closed her office, and set her sights on the goal of cultivating her own multifaceted firm.
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AWARDS + AFFILIATIONS
2020 Merit Award, CTASLA with Anne Penniman Associates, American Society of Landscape Architects / Member / Re-envisioning a Hampton’s Landscape
2018 Honor Award, CTASLA with Anne Penniman Associates, American Society of Landscape Architects / Member / Elizabeth Park Master Plan
2018 Honor Award, CTASLA with Anne Penniman Associates, American Society of Landscape Architects / Member / Island Habitat Landscape
2015 Honor Award, ASLA / Collective Visions: Researching the Design Potential of Landscape History with Rutgers University School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, The Roosevelt Arts Project
CT Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects Executive Committee / Member-at-Large, 2018-2021
American Society of Landscape Architects / Member
Connecticut Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects / Member
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
THE MEANING OF WOLF TREE
The term “wolf tree” is thought to have originated in the 1900s. An ancient tree much older than its surroundings, wolf trees are architectural specimens with their low-lying, gnarled, wide-spreading branches that twist in all directions. Their unique structure and captivating presence in an open or dense landscape can stir inspiration and become a reminder of perseverance; whether you find them at your family home, walking alone in woods, or they catch your eye as you travel along the fieldstone and granite wall-edged roads of New England.
Wolf trees have significant ecological characteristics; they have small hollows and shedding bark, which offer dynamic habitat for wildlife. A single wolf tree can support a variety of species in an ecosystem such as insects, mammals, fungi and birds. The preservation of these trees preserves both habitat and history—the foundation of our landscape’s next chapter.
Wolf trees are significant to our work because of the habitat value they hold and because they help us remember our past, look to our future, protect our children's future and our children's children's future. They inspire us to stand strong and believe in the beauty and uniqueness of the natural world we call home.
