Arcadia announces the two recent promotions of Valerie Ostermann to Associate and Kaylie Salvatori to Indigenous Landscape Strategist.

“In the two years that Valerie has been with Arcadia, she has demonstrated exceptional design leadership within the studio and become a trusted mentor internally."

"Her multi-disciplinary collaboration skills and her delivery of significant construction packages and administration on site across high-profile projects such as Barangaroo Metro, Ryde Central and Edmondson Park, have led her to build strong client relationships,” says Alex Longley, Principal at Arcadia Landscape Architecture.

Not only has her work led to some great results for the studio, she has also shown that she will be valuable addition to Arcadia’s executive team and we look forward to her perspective and involvement.

With Valerie becoming an Associate, we have increased the proportion of women on our executive team, part of our ongoing goal to support and promote women in landscape architecture.”

Kaylie has been working at Arcadia for the past three years, after finishing her Masters at UNSW where she was the recipient of the Arcadia UNSW Landscape Architecture Award for Indigenous Students.

A proud Budawang Yuin woman, Kaylie’s Aboriginal heritage is a strong driver in her approach to placemaking, with an emphasis on landscape identity, fostering connections to Country, and creating spaces in which culture can be respected, shared, and celebrated.

“We have appointed Kaylie as our Indigenous Landscape Strategist, a newly created national role which will provide strategic direction and advice across all studios."

"We are thrilled to recognise the skills she has developed in her time at Arcadia, which together with her cultural connections and personal desire, will continue to enhance Arcadia’s internal cultural strategy and knowledge in a way that will have far-reaching impacts on our designs and our collaborative partnerships,” says Michael Barnett, Principal at Arcadia.

“We pride ourselves on a culture of diversity and equality at Arcadia and that’s why we are especially proud to see these two promotions."

"Having the input of a variety of ideas and individual perspectives, coming from a range of backgrounds, strengthens our design outcomes,” says Alex Longley.

Image: Valerie Ostermann (right) and Kaylie Salvatori (left) / Supplied.