Peter Walker (landscape architect)

Peter Walker is an American landscape architect and the founder of PWP Landscape Architecture. He has been described as "a veteran designer of corporate campuses and estates".^[1]

Early life

Peter Walker^[2][3] grew up in California and attended the University of California, Berkeley. Walker started out studying Journalism but quickly changed his field. He received his Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture in 1955, and did his graduate studies at the University of Illinois where he studied under Stanley White.^[4]

Walker attended the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he received his masters in Landscape Architecture in 1957, and won the school's Jacob Weidenmann Prize^[5][6] that year.

Career

At Harvard, Walker had been deeply influenced by his professor, Hideo Sasaki. After graduating, he worked for Sasaki. Shortly thereafter, they both went into partnership to form Sasaki Walker Associates in 1957.

Peter Walker and Sasaki went their separate ways in 1983, and Walker went into partnership with landscape architect Martha Schwartz.^[7]

In the early 1990s Walker formed Peter Walker and Partners.^[7] In a 1993 review, Walker was one of four landscape architects named as representative of the new generation.^[8] The company developed into an interdisciplinary firm that employs around thirty to forty landscape architects. The company has received many awards^[9] and co-designed the World Trade Center Memorial in New York with architect Michael Arad.^[10]

Walker designed the garden for the Nasher Sculpture Center. In 2013 he was involved in a public argument with the architect of a neighboring building, Museum Tower, because the glare from the glass was damaging the vegetation. Walker described it as "public desecration".^[11]

Peter Walker is also a co-author of Invisible Gardens, which touches on the modernist movement in America and the comparison of other landscapes to those in Europe. The book discusses influential landscape architects, such as Hideo Sasaki.

In 2006, he was invited to join the judging panel for an international design competition for the new Gardens by the Bay in Singapore.

Awards

• 2004 - The ASLA Medal,^[12] the highest medal of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
• 2004 - ASLA Honor Award: Design, Nasher Sculpture Center^[13]
• 2005 - The Geoffrey Jellicoe Gold Medal^[14] from the International Federation of Landscape Architects.^[15]
• 2008 - The ASLA Landmark Award for Tanner Fountain at Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.^[16]
• 2010 - Knight Management Center: Stanford GSB awarded Green Project of the Year by the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal^[17]
• 2012 - The J.C. Nichols Prize Winner for Visionaries in Urban Development from the Urban Land Institute^[18]
• 2012 - Peter Walker & PWP Landscape Architecture awarded the Liberty Award by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.^[19]
• 2012 - The ASLA Medal Recipient.^[20]
• 2014 - The James Daniel Bybee Prize Recipient.^[21]

Notable projects

Australia

• Barangaroo Headlands Park: Sydney, New South Wales

Europe

• Novartis Headquarters: Basel, Switzerland
• The Sony Center: Berlin, Germany
• Munich Airport - Hotel Kempinski: Munich, Germany

The United States of America

• National 911 Memorial: Manhattan, New York
• Transbay Transit Center: San Francisco, California
• Jamison Square: Portland, Oregon
• Pixar Headquarters: Emeryville, California
• Constitution Gardens: Washington, D.C. - won competition for part redesign in 2012^[22]

Asia

• Marina Bay Sands Singapore
• Ciudad de Victoria Bocaue, Philippines

Publications

Books

• Walker, Peter, and Leah Levy. Peter Walker: Minimalist Gardens. Washington, DC: Spacemaker, 1997. Print.^[23]
• Invisible Gardens: The Search for Modernism in the American Landscape. Walker, Peter, and Melanie Simo. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT-Press, 1998. Print.Cambridge, Mass.: MIT-Press, 1998.^[24]
• Peter Walker and Partners: Defining the Craft. Walker, Peter. San Rafael, CA: ORO Editions, 2005. Print.^[25]

Sources

• Mozingo, Louise A. (2011), Pastoral Capitalism: A History of Suburban Corporate Landscapes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ISBN 978-0-262-01543-1 
• Treib, Marc (1993), Modern Landscape Architecture: A Critical Review, Mit Press, ISBN 978-0-262-70051-1 

References

External links

• Official site