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After spending the past 12 years running a landscape architecture firm, Steve Shapiro has retired. His initial plans? Running and gardening.

鈥淚t feels a little strange,鈥� said Shapiro, who in August stepped down from his leadership position with Shapiro Didway 鈥� the firm he co-founded with partner Blair Didway in 2007. 鈥淢y immediate goal 鈥� I like doing marathons 鈥� is that I want to finish doing one in every state. I’ve done 112 so far, but I have about 30 states to go. And after living in my house for 32 years I’d like to finish my own personal garden.鈥�

Shapiro made such an impact during his professional career that he left some business associates wanting more.

鈥淚’m very sad that he’s retiring, and it’s going to leave a big void in terms of our work and the relationship we’ve had with him,鈥� TVA Architects founding partner Robert Thompson said. 鈥淗e’s got an amazing body of work behind him. He’s one of a very few. There are Peter Walker, Laurie Olin, Rich Haag, and I would put Steve right in the same category as those great landscape architects.鈥�

Shapiro, a prot茅g茅 of late landscape architect Robert Murase, said he always had a love of nature and gardening. He attended the University of Florida and eventually began working with an environmental planning firm. There, he studied Lake Okeechobee and the decline of the Florida Everglades.

In the early 1980s Shapiro moved across the country to take a job as an urban planner with Clark County in Southwest Washington. While this was more to his liking, he also realized in time that he wanted to shift his career more toward design. That’s how he ended up working with Murase Associates for 13 years. It was the single most important move of his career.

鈥淎 whole new world was opened up because (Murase) did some projects around here, and he did huge projects around the world,鈥� Shapiro said. 鈥淭hey were large scale and really interesting. There were high-end residences, a new town in Japan, an 80-acre equestrian center in Florida; it was interesting and I don’t know why he kept me.鈥�

While gradually learning the ins and outs of design, Shapiro also used his writing skills to help market the firm’s work.

鈥淢y main job was doing proposals,鈥� he said. 鈥淕radually I started going with him places and learned what design was all about. And that also helped me when I started a business, because I didn’t run this by myself; I had Blair as a partner.鈥�

While with Murase Associates, Shapiro met Thompson and others who later became reliable collaborators on projects around the region. Shapiro worked with TVA Architects on nearly two dozen buildings totaling over 1.5 million square feet at the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton. They also collaborated on the Japanese American Historical Plaza in downtown Portland; the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington; Esther Short Park in Vancouver, Washington; and many more.

鈥淧ersonally, I think Steve’s about the most talented landscape architect in Portland, and he understands the architecture of landscape in a different way than most landscape architects that we’ve worked with,鈥� Thompson said. 鈥淗e’s extremely understanding of the relationship between the form of the buildings and how that translates into the form of the landscape and how they reinforce each other.

鈥淗e’s very modest and he’s an extremely gentle, nice guy,鈥� Thompson added. 鈥淎nd he’s a great collaborator, which might be one of the best compliments you can give a designer. He listens, loves to engage in collaborative ideas, and I think the byproduct of our work, the success of our work, is a byproduct of that collaboration.鈥�

Scott | Edwards Architecture principal Rick Berry has worked with Shapiro for nearly 20 years and singled out the landscape architect’s ability to sell clients on a particular design.

鈥淗e is just a charismatic person and just could bring life to any project,鈥� Berry said. 鈥淲hat’s really exciting about Steve is how he can take a client and lead them on a journey and people would just jump on board. The way he spoke, he really could tell a story about the design and you could see people literally follow along.鈥�

Despite the accolades earned from large commercial projects, Shapiro said his greatest professional satisfaction likely comes from the intricate gardens he has designed for private residential clients.

鈥淔rom working with Bob Murase I really learned about what and how a garden can make you feel,鈥� Shapiro said. 鈥淚t’s the spiritual side, and dealing with living entities that do have a force that’s not measurable; you walk into a beautiful garden and it just creates an aura of calmness. It’s why I call my own personal garden my happy place.鈥�

Berry noted that Shapiro also had a knack for creating beautiful transitions between the built environment and the natural world.

鈥淭he way he could explain the landscape and bring it to a personal level, it was super cool,鈥� Berry said. 鈥淗e got right down to the nitty-gritty and he had a vision that people were excited about. That’s why we kept working together, and each time it was something different. There was perfect harmony between the landscape and the architecture, and that’s a really important thing.鈥�

Eventually, Shapiro decided he needed to forge his own path in the industry. So he broke away from Murase Associates joined forces with Didway. Business for Shapiro Didway looked promising at first, but then the Great Recession took hold.

鈥淲e suffered the ups and downs of the economy, and the recession was pretty brutal,鈥� Shapiro said. 鈥淚n October of ’08 all our work disappeared. Within a two-week period we lost six months’ worth of work, and there wasn’t much to take its place.鈥�

The firm endured, however, and eventually rebounded and grew.

鈥淲e had one job to carry us for a while,鈥� Shapiro said. 鈥淎nd then as the economy improved we started hiring staff 鈥� and we still have most of that staff.鈥�

The experience created a tight-knit, united firm, he added.

鈥淚t’s a team-oriented firm,鈥� he said. 鈥淚’ve just worked with our core group of people over the years. Blair and I did; it wasn’t just me.鈥�