06/02/2026
ASLA MN Education Symposium Session Highlight:
Session 4 – Resilience by Design: From Process to Practice by Leah Wirgau, Sr. Sustainability Specialist, HGA and Patrick Cipriano, Design Coordinator, HGA
Climate change is increasingly impacting our communities, ecosystems, and economies, and site design can play a key role in resilient solution-making. To that end, design, engineering, and planning professionals have the power to implement resilient strategies that bolster project goals and support vulnerable populations. Highlighting a collaboration between an architecture-engineering firm and the University of Minnesota’s Climate Adaptation Partnership, presenters will walk through a three-part resilience planning process. Tools and resources for gathering climate data, and best practices for identifying hazards, assessing risk, and planning strategies will be covered. A local project example will be given to demonstrate this process.
Leah Wirgau, LFA, SITES AP, MN Master Naturalist, Sr. Sustainability Specialist, HGA
As a member of HGA’s Sustainability team, Leah is an expert in the Minnesota B3, SITES, Living Building Challenge, and WELL Health-Safety rating systems. She has experience implementing strategies related to climate resilience, energy reduction, embodied carbon, and material health. Her knowledge in deep green building and site practices guides related research and education, and supports industry-leading projects, as well as policies.
Patrick Cipriano, LFA, LEED GA, Design Coordinator, HGA
Patrick is an emerging professional working at the intersection of architecture and resilience to integrate research into practice on a day-to-day project level approach. Patrick has over five years of research and professional experience in resilience that includes scenario planning, climate projection data, biophilic design, and energy modeling. Research experience has included previous and active collaborations with the University of Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership (MCAP), and the University of Minnesota Center for Sustainable Building Research (CSBR).
