Anderson is recognized[7] by the American Society of Landscape Architects for combining nature, community needs, and art into his designs, emphasizing sustainability, indigenous plants and urban ecology.
Other notable projects by Charles Anderson include providing landscape design for the Anchorage Museum expansion,[13] as well as Seattle's 8.5 acres (3.4 ha) Olympic Sculpture Park,[9][14] Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument,[15] and Manhattan's Arthur Ross Terrace.
[18] The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) awarded Anderson for his designs in the Tables of Water in Lake Washington (Washington State),[19] the Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument project,[20] the Trillium Projects in Seattle,[21] and the Arthur Ross Terrace [22] design in Manhattan, New York and the Olympic Sculpture Park (4), Seattle, WA.
[7] Anderson has defined his emerging design theory as “Emo Urbanism.” It is differentiated from other conceptual processes with a focus on art, culture, ecology, and the fourth dimension.
Big Nature is the principal approach to a project that carries sustainable, indigenous focused landscapes to the rooftops in cities.
Ashton Nichols, a professor of English Language and Literature at Dickinson College, first developed the term in relation to ecocriticism and how people perceive the world around them.
[4] Anderson contends that the landscape cannot just be an aesthetic tool, it must also provide for the mental, physical, and social health of people regardless of where they live.
Anderson's award-winning urbanature includes the Alaska Museum of History and Art,[26] the Olympic Sculpture Park,[27][28][29] and Trillium Projects[18] and can be seen throughout his monograph, “Wandering Ecologies.”[30]