As a Senior Landscape Architect at Wight & Company, Patty King has what she calls the privilege of thinking about nature all the time. She brings creativity, structure, and a passion for sustainable design techniques to each project and specializes in creating outdoor spaces that offer an intimate connection with the natural environment, as can be seen in her past projects such as Maggie Daley Park and the Oak Brook Park District’s McDonald’s Fields redesign. Patty was also named a Notable Woman in STEM by Crain’s Chicago Business this year!
Patty spent her youth in central Texas and upstate New York where she played in the woods, walked through streams, and enjoyed fields of bluebonnet flowers right across from her home. She has always been curious about nature and especially loves integrating natural systems and shapes into her work.
Patty and her husband Tim have been members of The Conservation Foundation for upwards of 10 years, connecting first with McDonald Farm and our Green Earth Harvest program and then learned about the mission further from her colleague Lois Vitt Sale, who retired from Wight & Company within the past couple of years and serves on our Board of Trustees. “Lois shares my love for the outdoors and working at Wight & Company with her, she helped me understand the mission and how I could get involved,” Patty said. “I love what The Conservation Foundation does and that now I have the opportunity to help.”
Patty and Tim have two teenage sons and live in Naperville. In addition to her dedication to family and her career, Patty is an avid quilter and an endurance athlete, having completed the Chicago Marathon and also climbed the equivalent of Mount Vinson, the highest peak in Antarctica at 16,150 feet, as part of an endurance event in 2021.
