He has worked on landscape design projects at diverse scales, from private residential gardens to public parks and corporate/museum campus plans.

Olin grew up in Alaska, and earned his degree in Architecture from the University of Washington in Seattle, where he was mentored under Richard Haag.

After serving as chair at Harvard, Olin returned to University of Pennsylvania where he continues to be Practice Professor of Landscape Architecture.

He is also the author of Transforming the Commonplace (1996) and Vizcaya: An American Villa and Its Makers (2006, with Witold Rybczynski), on James Deering's mansion in Coconut Grove, Florida.

Olin was a speaker in the Spotlight on Design Lecture Series at the National Building Museum in 2003.