"People are at the core of my practice and help me better see and experience the built environment."
Grace Farms Foundation, Location: New Canaan CT, Landscape Architect: OLIN © Sahar Coston-Hardy/Esto
Sahar Coston-Hardy creates images that highlight urban and ecological design, the built environment, and people. With over 20 years of experience behind the lens, she seeks to tell stories through her imagery, focusing on important narratives by weaving together architecture photography, portraiture, and street photography.
Throughout her career, she has sought to find the humanity at the forefront of conversations concerning social justice, class, and equity in urban design and landscape. A graduate of Tyler School of Art at Temple University, she has lectured frequently on landscape architecture photography and visual storytelling, and her work has been widely published, most recently in Landscape Architecture Magazine, Architect, Oprah Daily, and The New York Times. Sahar photographed Dumbarton Oaks for the publication, Garden as Art: Beatrix Farrand at Dumbarton Oaks during the centennial. Her photographs document the natural beauty of the gardens through growth and seasonal changes over the course of the year. The volume, published in Spring 2022, features essays and photographs of “this remarkable landscape as a living and breathing work of art.”
Coston-Hardy’s collaborative projects have received national recognition, including a Women Photograph + Nikon grant and a Gold EXCEL Award from Association Media & Publishing. Her imagery of the built environment has led to many winning national and local design awards, most notably: Dilworth Park winning the first-ever ASLA Award of Excellence for Urban Design, awarded to OLIN, 2021 Atlanta Dairies winning the ASLA Honor Award for General Design awarded to Perkins & Will, and Battery Playscape winning a 2023 AIANY Merit Award, awarded to BKSK Architects.
Sahar is a member of Diversify Photo and Women Photograph.
recent Clients
Agency Landscape + Planning
Andropogon
BKSK
CLR Design
DAVID RUBIN Land Collective
dMAS
Dumbarton Oaks
Exit Design
Figure 8 Thinking
Grace farms Foundation
Hinge Collective
Landscape Architecture Magazine
Landscape Forms
Natural Resources Defense Council
OLIN
Pixel Parlor
Perkins & Will
Reed Hilderbrand
RELM
SALT Design
Studio Bryan Hanes
Temple University
The City of Philadelphia
Trowbridge Wolf Michaels, A Fisher Associates Landscape Architecture Studio
University of Pennsylvania
Viridian Landscape Studio
Publications
Architect Magazine
Architectural Record
Brookings
Garden as Art: Beatrix Farrand at Dumbarton Oaks: Thaisa Way
Landscape Architecture Magazine
LEVEL Magazine
Metropolis
Natural Resources Defense Council
Next City
The New York Times
Oprah Daily
Philly Mag
Smithsonian Magazine
The Architect’s Newspaper
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Washington Post