Kate Orff. (Courtesy SCAPE)

Kate Orff, the founder ofSCAPE Landscape Architecture, will head up the Urban Design Program at Columbia University’sGraduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.

SCAPE’s “Living Breakwaters.” (Courtesy SCAPE)

Fast Companyreportedthat Orff will step into her new role in June, succeeding Richard Plunz who has lead the program since 1992.

Orff is currently an associate professor at GSAPP and has become well known for her pioneering use of oysters to clean waterways and support coastal resilience. In June, SCAPE’sLiving Breakwatersplan to protect Staten Island with a reef of oysters wasawarded $60 millionin the Department of Housing and Urban Development’sRebuild By Designcompetition. And then in November, the project won the2014 Buckminster Fuller Challenge.