She is also the director the Urban Design Program (MSAUD) at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and co-director of the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes.

[3] Orff's work focuses on retooling the practice of landscape architecture relative to uncertainty of climate change and fostering social life which she has explored through publications, activism, research, and projects.

[citation needed] She was listed first by Elle magazine in 2011 as one of nine women involved as "fixers" for mankind for her concept of "oyster-tecture", i.e. building reef-like structures with oysters to clean the water at New York City's waterfront.

Orff grew up in a once-gated suburban community in Crofton, Maryland, to which she has been designed for the use of cars and created on the steadfast idea that oil was what kept modern settlements relevant.

During his class, Orff realized that landscape architecture was a combination of many things that she was passionate about; it integrated her interests in science and politics as well as her talent in art and design.

[9] She states that, since the formation of the discipline, landscape architects had been working closely with the carbon-centric world; people have been creating wonderful gardens as a focus for the field but has been letting the Earth decay in the back-drop.

[11][12] Orff and her firm, SCAPE, have developed a design called "Oyster-tecture," which serves as ecological infrastructure to filter polluted water and mitigate the effects of storm surge and sea-level rise through the construction of oyster reefs.

Following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, Orff and SCAPE were selected to join an interdisciplinary team for Mayor Bloomberg's Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency (SIRR).

SCAPE's role in the harbor-wide study was to integrate natural systems as risk-reduction infrastructure, and layering strategies for enhanced coastal protection and ecosystem health.

This summit brought together the leading minds in the field of landscape architecture to create a declaration on how we need to move forward in a challenging future.

[20] As a landscape architect, Orff is accredited in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, South Carolina, Minnesota, and Arkansas.