Leadership
The firm is lead by seasoned landscape architects familiar with the Chicago, as well as the regional, national and international marketplaces.
Craig A. Soncrant, PLA, ASLA, SCUP
Principal | Design Director
Craig Soncrant is the founding principal and design director at Third Coast Design Collective, LLC and has been practicing since 1999. He has in-depth experience in a variety of project types and scales ranging from campuses to resorts to rooftops. Known as a “landscape architect’s landscape architect,” he is widely versed in today’s practices and can create memorable spaces across the spectrum of design and planning. Originally from Ohio, Craig studied at Xavier University in Cincinnati where he received his Bachelor of Science in Sport Management in 1996. He then studied at The Ohio State University and earned his Master of Landscape Architecture degree in 1999 before moving to Chicago in that same year to begin his career.
Prior to founding Third Coast Design Collective, LLC in 2017, Craig has accumulated a wide range of experience with many of the profession’s leading local, national and international firms and has gained invaluable knowledge from each that he applies to every project conceived in our studio.
Upon graduation, Soncrant joined Lakota Group as a project manager where he gained expertise in large scale planning and design. In 2001, he moved on to join Jacobs / Ryan Associates in the same capacity where he began practice in the smaller site and landscape design scale. In 2004, Craig joined Douglas Hoerr Landscape Architecture (now Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architecture) as a project manager expanding his design, planting and detailing knowledge.
In 2006, Craig was presented an opportunity to relocate to Lake Tahoe in California and became a studio leader for the Truckee, California office of SE Group, a mountain resort planning and design firm. Shortly after joining that office, it merged with the firm of EDAW | AECOM where he became office studio leader for the Mountain Resort Planning and Design practice line. In late 2007, Soncrant relocated back to Chicago and joined the newly created EDAW | AECOM office there where he co-lead the national Campus Planning and Design practice line for EDAW | AECOM and served as a designer / project manager. In late 2009, Craig joined Wolff Landscape Architecture as a senior project manager and designer, furthering his expertise in the many facets of urban design.
Craig works on a variety of planning and landscape architectural projects, requiring expertise in planning and master planning; site planning and design; landscape design and detailing, and construction observation. Versed in many areas of landscape architecture, Soncrant is able to apply his skill set to the design process and offer unique and creative solutions that both benefit the project and meet the client’s goals. Craig is a Professional Landscape Architect (PLA) licensed in Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee; a Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB) certified landscape architect, and a member of both the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the Society for College and University Planning (SCUP). He resides in Evanston, Illinois.