Deena Bell-Llewellyn
Assistant Director of Public Works, Greenspace Management, City of Coral Gables
Before she led Coral Gables’ greenspace division and oversaw the health and happiness of the city’s enormous canopy, Deena Bell-Llewellyn thought she was going to be a doctor. Then she found Coral Gables. “When I was in college on spring break, I came to Coral Gables and I fell in love with the historic architecture, the tree canopy… the whole landscape of [the city],” Bell-Llewellyn says. She moved to Miami after graduation and went to work for a landscape architect. Post-Hurricane Andrew, with the demand for landscape redesign rising, she started her own firm, Bell Landscape Architecture. Following Hurricane Irma, the City of Coral Gables hired her to lead the landscape recovery effort, during which she oversaw the planting of over 1,000 new trees. Today, she runs the city’s Greenspace Management Division, which maintains over 400 parks and greenspaces and supports 40,000 trees in the urban canopy.
“What Excites Me the Most [Today] Is Seeing the Large That’s Going to Come Into South Florida Over the Next Decade…”
Accomplishments
Earlier this year, Bell-Llewellyn became a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects, a national honor recognizing sustained contributions to the profession. “To become elevated to a Fellow… it’s a career dream,” she says. “Only people that have worked in the profession for many years and have built the highest reputation can even be nominated… there’s a national panel that votes on your application.” Fewer than 50 people are picked each year for the honor. Coral Gables also recently celebrated its 40th consecutive year as a Tree City USA, a designation supported by her team’s work.
What She Says
“I always knew I wanted to work here,” says Bell-Llewellyn. “What excites me the most [today] is seeing the large growth that’s going to come into South Florida over the next decade, and being part of fitting that many people… into the land and then adapting the land to fit the population. It’s going to be a challenge that only a landscape architect can do,” she says. – Amanda Martell