Taking a swing in world of landscape architecture
Connor Nguyen has landed a job with a landscape architecture firm in Pinehurst, North Carolina, and once he graduates, he’ll be helping to design golf courses, public spaces, and residential developments in one of the country’s premier golf designations.
As a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, Connor Nguyen frequently used his free time to play golf and really got into it.
Now, shortly after his graduation in May, he has a tee time scheduled for a career that involves the sport.
The senior from Centreville, Virginia, landed a position with KoontzJones Design, a land planning and landscape architecture firm based in Pinehurst, North Carolina — a golf mecca with more than 40 courses. In fact, the U.S. Open, one of four major championships, will be played at Pinehurst No. 2 in June. Nguyen plans on moving to that area this summer and starting his position in August.
A handicap of 14 wasn’t exactly going to land Nguyen on the PGA Tour, so he decided to attempt to make the cut in course development. He won’t be designing actual holes for his firm – a golf course architect handles that – but he helps to determine the site footprint, which includes such the routing, the location of the cart paths, the driving range and the practice putting greens, and on certain projects, the location of residential lots.
The position represents an interesting career twist for someone who originally envisioned using his degree in landscape architecture to design parks and sports complexes.
“I like this firm because it provides me with the opportunity to do both,” Nguyen said. “Golf is kind of like a niche field. A lot of other traditional landscape architecture firms won’t touch it, so the fact that this firm has that in with the resort [Pinehurst Resort] and other courses, I get to work on that when I want, but they also do public projects for Moore County, which is the county where they're based. They do parks and rec projects, so I'll be able to balance both.”
Nguyen followed this cart path to dream employment in part because of Virginia Tech Advantage, an initiative launched last year to offer an expansive educational experience to undergraduate students from Virginia who have financial needs. During the summer before his sophomore year, the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design paid for Nguyen and numerous other students to attend The American Society of Landscape Architects conference held in Nashville. The conference, which takes place annually in different cities, allows those in the profession or students with career aspirations to come together for educational sessions, professional development, and networking opportunities.
Administrators within Virginia Tech’s landscape architecture program, which is in the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design, use fundraising initiatives throughout the year to pay for students to attend the conference each year and has done so for quite some time. Resources for career preparation are one of many facets of Virginia Tech Advantage.
While in Nashville, Nguyen took the suggestion of a friend and introduced himself to a representative of KoontzJones Design. That led to an internship opportunity, and after interning for the past two summers with the firm, he landed a full-time job offer this past November.
“That [Nguyen going to the conference] just shows that it's beyond a source of interest,” said Andrew Green ’01, who is president and principal architect of Green Golf & Turf, a firm he owns that often mentors students in landscape architecture at his alma mater. “It’s important to you when you make that level of commitment to go and see professionals and make the connections and the relationships, whether it be exactly in the direction you want to head within the field of landscape architecture or just seeing the broad scope of what's available. As an employer, I'm looking for people that share my passion and somebody that I know, if I give them a task or a project to work on, they’re going to put their heart and soul into it.”
Since getting the internship, Nguyen has spent much of his free time over the past two years trying to return to the favor to those who helped him.
“I'm super grateful for the landscape architecture program providing the opportunity to go to the conference, and I try to give it back,” Nguyen said. “You’ll find me at open houses or giving tours of the architecture studio to prospective students. I represent the landscape architecture program when the high schoolers come in, and I get to talk about my experience and everything I’ve done. I’m president of the honor society, so I’m just doing as much outreach as I can.”
Nguyen signed an employment agreement with KoontzJones Design in January, much to the delight of his parents, who are natives of Vietnam and migrated to the United States after the Vietnam War. Nguyen’s grandparents fought alongside the U.S. military during the conflict.
Nguyen and his brother, who graduated from Virginia Tech in 2019 with a degree in building construction, are both first-generation students.
“I’m thankful my parents let me go down this route of landscape architecture,” Nguyen said. “They probably had no idea what it was. I just wanted to do well in school and show them that I could make a career of it. They’re super proud that I’ve got a job lined up.”
Nguyen anticipates doing a lot of what he termed hand rendering design in his role – his specialty. He draws renderings to give clients a perspective on the potential outcome of a project.
“I got to do a lot of the final illustrative master plan drawings during my internship,” he said. “It’s just a way to show the client what the space will look like from an aerial perspective. It’s just kind of a marketing thing to show the client and to put on brochures and to show people, ‘Hey, this is what this is going to look like.’”
Nguyen has received a lot of guidance from Green and Tom Marzolf ’82, two of the nation’s top golf course architects and alumni of the university’s landscape architecture program. In 2016, Green and his company were chosen to renovate the East Course at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, in preparation for last year’s PGA Championship, one of professional golf’s four major tournaments, and Marzolf has worked with noted course designer Tom Fazio since 1983.
They both helped Nguyen with his senior project, which centered on golf course renovation.
“My advice to him was to continue to chase your dreams and your passion,” Green said. “There are lot of days when you're not sure if it's a dead end or there's going to be obstacles in your way. But that doesn't mean you should give up. Continue to chase your dream every day, and even when there are things that you're tasked with that seem kind of menial or off target, a lot of times you can learn as much from those or more than the things you think you need to know.”
Starting in August, Nguyen will spend his days working on designs – and most of his evenings working on his game at the driving range and practice putting greens located at the Pinehurst Resort.
As a 14-handicap, he’s willing to lay up on the course at times. But from a career perspective, he’s certainly going for it.
