ASLA 2006 Class of Fellows
James K. Tiller selected as a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects 2006 Class of Fellows
"There is nothing more rewarding to any professional than to be recognized by one's peers for his life's work.” – Jim Tiller
By Richard Brooks (Bluffton Today) James K. Tiller of J. K. Tiller Associates Inc. in Bluffton will be inducted into the American Society of Landscape Architects Council of Fellows, among the highest honors the Society confers each year. Fellows are recognized for their extraordinary work, leadership, knowledge, and service to the landscape architecture profession over a sustained period of time. The induction ceremony will be Oct. 7 during the ASLA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, Minn. The recognition entitles the 31 inductees to use the suffix “FASLA” after their names, denoting recognition of their achievements by their peers. Before Tiller, only six other landscape architects practicing in South Carolina have been recognized as Fellows of the ASLA. Fellows are elected based on their contributions to the field in one of four categories: works of landscape architecture, administrative work, knowledge or service to the profession. Tiller was selected under the criteria of works of landscape architecture which demonstrate mastery of design, advancement of the art, stewardship and social responsibility.
After studying architecture at Clemson University, Tiller earned a bachelor’s degree in landscape horticulture from the University of Tennessee. He then earned a master’s in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia School of Environmental Design and did post-graduate work in Harvard University seminars. Tiller is a registered landscape architect and land planner with three decades of professional experience in all phases of master planning, site planning, urban design, landscape architecture and detailed landscape construction. He has been in private practice since 1972 except for three years spent as a professor of landscape architecture at the Ohio State University School of Architecture.
Tiller’s expansive professional portfolio includes coastal and mountain resorts, parks and recreational facilities, golf course and retirement communities, military projects, medical and commercial facilities, streetscape and urban designs, highway beautification, international projects, private residences, multi-family communities and private residential developments.
A photograph on the wall of James K. Tiller’s office captures a moment in his landscape architecture career. Tiller studies a relief map and golf great Jack Nicklaus points into the distance. They could be plotting a course at Colleton River Plantation in Bluffton or at Pinehurst National in North Carolina. “I’ve planned five golf course communities with Nicklaus,” Tiller said. “Typically, we get involved and route the golf course … then the golf course architect comes along,” he said. The landscape architect takes into account the existing terrain – wetlands, trees, pastures – and the future additions – buildings, roads, amenities – to make it all fit together. Tiller also drew the master plan for Spring Island and its Arnold Palmer golf course. “I routed it, but it’s not my course,” Tiller said. “It’s Arnold Palmer’s course.” Spring Island featured large areas of open land, originally cotton fields, that had been used more recently for hunting. “We routed the course through the clear areas and saved those huge live oak trees,” Tiller said.
His love for the Lowcountry and its natural beauty dates back to 1963 when he spent his first night at Coligny Beach on Hilton Head Island. He and some college friends from Clemson “literally spent the night on the beach,” Tiller said. “There wasn’t anything on Hilton Head back then. The mosquitoes about ate us alive.” The Tennessee native knew then he would eventually come back to Hilton Head. “I wanted to be involved in what was going on with Charles Frazer and Sea Pines,” he said. Tiller in 1972 went to work for Edward Pinckney and Associates, the firm that was master planning Sea Pines. Ed Pinckney had taught Tiller at the Clemson architecture school, which at the time didn’t offer a landscape architecture degree. Tiller would transfer to the University of Tennessee for a degree in landscape horticulture and then earn a master’s in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia. “I was a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and what it means to bring the architecture into the landscape,” he said.
He started his own firm, J.K. Tiller Associates, in 1998. His son, Josh Tiller, graduated from Clemson with an architecture degree that same year and worked with the family firm for two years.
Josh also earned a master’s in landscape architecture from Georgia and returned as an associate in the Tiller firm in 2002.
