Home » Misc » Female garden designers

Female garden designers


11 Female Landscape Architects and Designers to Know 2021

Courtesy of Grace Design Associates

After nearly an entire year spent at home (and counting!), there has simply been nothing else that has made us feel grateful quite like our own personal green space. Whether that's a small but lush balcony or a sprawling yard full of various gardens, these outdoor spaces have become our refuges and will only continue to become more important parts of our lives as we learn more about how the garden can truly save us. The same has rung true with public outdoor spaces, especially for urban-dwellers, who are hungry for a verdant landscape and a safe place to dine, run, or simply be outside of their four walls.

We're honoring 11 female landscape architects and designers, along with a few garden designers, who make our lives better through creating imaginative, functional, and healing green spaces, both for private and public enjoyment, across the globe. Read on to find inspiration from these incredible landscape designers.

Tom Mannion

1 of 33

Jinny Blom

U.K.-based garden designer Jinny Blom pivoted to a career in landscapes while working with mentally ill clients in London's inner city as a psychotherapist. She founded her eponymous design studio in 2000 and has been creating award-winning gardens ever since. A few notable projects include five Chelsea Flower Shows—one of them being for HRH the Prince of Wales, two for Laurent-Perrier, and one for Prince Harry's first venture into the flower show in 2013.

Blom is an Artist in Residence for Chelsea & Westminster Hospital, a member of the Artworkers Guild, and longstanding member of the Garden Media Guild. She also sits on the committee for Waddeson on behalf of the Rothschild Foundation.

Blom has been nominated three times for Woman of the Year for contribution to society through her work honoring both passions and is a board member of the Therapeutic Landscapes Network in the U.S. She is the author of The Thoughtful Gardener: An Intelligent Approach to Garden Design, columnist for the Times, and won BBC Radio Broadcaster of the Year for her Radio 4 Woman’s Hour features in 2002.

Andrew Montgomery

2 of 33

Arijiju Conservation Lodge by Jinny Blom: Laikipia, Kenya

Britt Willoughby Dyer

3 of 33

Fife Arms Hotel by Jinny Blom: Braemar, Scotland

Courtesy of Nahal Sohbati

4 of 33

Nahal Sohbati

The Tehran-born landscape designer is the cofounder of Topophyla, a landscape design firm that serves Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and the Bay Area. Sohbati has a background in interior architecture but developed a passion for public open spaces with high social impact, which lead her to pursue a Master's degree in landscape architecture at the Academy of Art in San Francisco before founding Topophyla.

Sohbati believes that design is a tool for advocacy to change "what is" into "what could be" in order to improve social wellbeing for all. She is known for her award-winning community service project, Ridge Lane, that began in 2014, and her team continues to prioritize projects and design principles in a way that connects communities to their environment.

Courtesy of Nahal Sohbati

5 of 33

Private Residence by Topophyla: Pasadena, CA

Saxon Holt

6 of 33

"Sublimation" Garden by Topophyla: San Francisco Flower & Garden Show

Caryn Leigh Photography

7 of 33

Martha Schwartz

Martha Schwartz is a landscape architect, urbanist, climate activist and principal at Martha Schwartz Partners, which is based in London, New York, and Shanghai. She is also a tenured professor in the Practice of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and an active participant in the school's Climate Change Working Group.

The highly acclaimed architect has spent her career focusing and teaching about the urban public realm landscape and the importance of having "climate ready" cities. Schwartz was recently awarded the 2020 ASLA Design Medal and has a host of other international awards, including Royal Designer for Industry Award from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award, and the Women in Design Award for Excellence from the Boston Society of Architects.

Additionally, Schwartz is a founding member of the Working Group of Sustainable Cities at the Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Landscape Architecture Foundation's “Working Group on Climate Change,” and has most recently founded Mayday.Earth, a non-profit organization focused on educating people on global-scale solutions for landscape architecture to preserve and better our planet.

Courtesy of Martha Schwartz Partners

8 of 33

Delano Hotel by Martha Schwartz Partners: Miami, FL

Courtesy of Martha Schwartz Partners

9 of 33

Beiqija Technology Business District by Martha Schwartz Partners: Bejing, China

Sandrine Lee

10 of 33

Janice Parker

Janice Parker is a world-renowned landscape architect who founded her eponymous firm in 1984. Her projects span the globe, from the Hamptons to Russia, with an emphasis on both a creative spirit and technical expertise. Her work has receive numerous awards, including VERANDA's 2020 Outdoor Living Awards, where her work on a residence in Millbrook, New York, was recognized for "Magnificent Farm Rescue. "

Parker studied at Parsons School of Design and with John Brookes at the Clock House School of Garden Design in England, where she was involved in floral design for public and private events, eventually leading her to a love of landscape design. She and her firm have received a variety of accolades, such as the National Palladio Award for Landscape Architecture. She was also involved in the formation of New York City's Million Trees Project and designed the Cherry Tree Project for the Harlem River Esplanade. In 2019, Janice became a member of the Board of Trustees for Bette Midler's New York Restoration Project (NYRP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to beautifying New York's public spaces and creating a healthier environment for those who live in the most densely populated and least green neighborhoods. Her influence reaches beyond the pages of magazines and the gardens of her clients, as she shares her dedication to the natural environment and excellence in landscape design through teaching, mentorship, and volunteer work.

Durston Saylor

11 of 33

Private Eden by Janice Parker Landscape Architects: Fairfield County, CT

Durston Saylor

12 of 33

Henault Residence by Janice Parker Landscape Architects: Millbrook, NY

L.C. Morris

13 of 33

Edwina von Gal

Edwina von Gal is a New York–based landscape designer and environmentalist who is known for creating impeccable ecological landscapes without chemicals. This allows her projects to best support wildlife, and she has made a full-time commitment to Two-Thirds for the Birds, a nonprofit that is working to reverse bird die-off through producing pollinator and native gardens without chemicals. The designer spends much of her time experimenting in her personal garden to create these impressive natural landscapes.

Von Gal is best known for being the founder of Edwina von Gal + Co., a renowned landscape design firm, before turning her attention to founding the Perfect Earth Project in 2013, a nonprofit that promotes the creation of chemical-free landscapes in the U. S. for the health of ourselves, our pets, and the planet. Her work has earned her coveted awards, including the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art’s Arthur Ross Award, the NY School of Interior Design Green Design Award, and, most recently, the Quogue Wildlife Refuge Conservator Award.

Courtesy of Edwina Von Gal

14 of 33

Cotswold-Style Residence by Edwina von Gal: Long Island, NY

Nikolas Koenig

15 of 33

Residential Noguchi Sculpture Garden by Edwina von Gal: Long Island, NY

Courtesy of Grace Fuller Design

16 of 33

Grace Fuller Marroquín

Grace Fuller Marroquín is the founder of Grace Fuller Design, a landscape design firm based in New York. Her love affair with design in all its forms began at a young age, as she grew up between Philadelphia and Rome with an artist mother who was an active gardener and used nature as a major source of inspiration. Though Fuller Marroquín began her career as an editor in fashion and jewelry and even launched her own limited-run production company of coats with W Magazine, she was drawn back to the world of landscape design and studied at New York Botanical Garden’s School of Horticulture.

Fuller Marroquín is known for her romantic and wild take on garden and landscape designs, and she prides herself on her stewardship of the land she is given to work with. The up-and-coming designer is a protégé of Edwina von Gal's and finds her a prominent influence in creating beautiful spaces that don't sacrifice sustainability.

Courtesy of Grace Fuller Design

17 of 33

Personal Garden by Grace Fuller Design: New York, NY

Courtesy of Grace Fuller Design

18 of 33

Personal Garden by Grace Fuller Design: New York, NY

Courtesy of Wambui Ippolito

19 of 33

Wambui Ippolito

New York–based landscape designer Wambui Ippolito grew up on her grandparents' farm in Kenya's Rift Valley and as a daughter of globe-trotting diplomats, which influences her work today. She believes in the power of plants to articulate one's sense of heritage and place, thus producing an incredible array of native gardens, including working at Martha Stewart's Bedford home and David Letterman's estate.

Prior to graduating from New York Botanical Garden’s School of Horticulture and launching her career with Jane Gil Gardens, Ippolito worked as a Development & Democracy Consultant for several international government organizations before following her true passion. Besides creating spectacular outdoor spaces for an impressive roster of businesses and notable private clients, she often works to help international organizations, museums, parks, and other institutions develop horticultural programming. Ippolito also teaches and lectures at Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Grounds for Sculpture in New Jersey and at her alma mater.

Courtesy of Wambui Ippolito

20 of 33

Woodland Garden in Central Park West by Wambui Ippolito: New York, NY

Courtesy of Wambui Ippolito

21 of 33

Nairobi Home Garden by Wambui Ippolito: Nairobi, Kenya

Christopher Irion

22 of 33

Andrea Cochran

Andrea Cochran is a highly lauded landscape architect based in San Francisco who has been the subject of books, documentaries, and other educational programming surrounding landscape design. She is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has become known for mastery of minimalism and emphasis on sustainability in her firm's cross-country projects, from acclaimed Napa wineries to residential projects on Hawaii's Big Island.

Cochran is a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the recipient of numerous awards, from the ASLA Design Medal to the National Design Award and Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture. She has also served as the Commissioner and Chair of the Civic Design Committee of the San Francisco Arts Commission for seven years.

"ACLA balances high-end private gardens and commercial projects with affordable housing projects because we believe that everyone deserves sustainable, well-designed spaces," says Cochran. "My proudest moment was undoubtedly when my firm won the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt National Design Award in 2014, and I was invited to the White House to meet Michelle Obama. "

Matthew Millman

23 of 33

Windhover Contemplative Center at Stanford University by Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture: Stanford, CA

Courtesy of Andrea Cochran

24 of 33

901 Fairfax Hunters View Housing by Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture: San Francisco, CA

Courtesy of Grace Design Associates

25 of 33

Margie Grace

Margie Grace is a Southern California–based landscape and garden designer who has been tapped for more than 350 projects around the globe. Grace studied life and earth sciences along with landscape architecture and has worked in landscapes across the world to learn a variety of principles and techniques that she can bring back home to her home state. Though she has worked in gardens from Spain to New Zealand, Grace is most influenced by and recognized for her deep appreciation for California’s unique natural beauty and climate, and her expertise of the balance of the area's local ecosystems is widely sought-after.

Grace's work has been featured in numerous top publications (including our own), and her firm, Grace Design Associates, has received a plethora of awards, including Landscape Designer of the Year from the Association of Professional Landscape Designers—twice! Grace also published her latest book, Private Gardens of Santa Barbara: The Art of Outdoor Living, in March 2020.

Holly Lepere

26 of 33

Wildlife Refuge by Grace Design Associates: Montecito, CA

Courtesy of Grace Design Associates

27 of 33

Sycamore Canyon by Grace Design Associates: Montecito, CA

Marion Brenner

28 of 33

Pamela Burton

Pamela Burton is the founder and principal of Pamela Burton & Company and has more than 40 years of landscape design experience. She studied architecture and environmental design at UCLA, where she worked at ACE Gallery with creatives to install earth-work art, thus fueling her love for both landscape and art.

Burton is best known for combining her passions of plants, architecture, and art to create one-of-a-kind public and private outdoor spaces and has a special interest in architectural spaces with symbolic resonance. The designer's work is rooted in a deep understanding the natural environment and creating a more functional outdoor space that benefits the surrounding landscape as much as the eye. Her projects (many of them award-winning) can be found around the world, from Idaho to Japan, and her impressive career has earned her a fellowship with ASLA. Burton is also the author of two landscape design books.

Marion Brenner

29 of 33

Hendrickson Road by Pamela Burton & Company: Ojai, CA

Mimi Haddon

30 of 33

Lorna Lane by Pamela Burton & Company: Brentwood, CA

Meet the Women Behind Some of the World’s Most Beautiful Gardens

Architecture + Design

A new book celebrates women in landscape design

Most Popular

Most Popular

Most Popular

Explorebookshomegardensad

Read More

Most Influential Women Designers of the Last 100 Years / All About Design / Pollskill

Dmitry Dobrenko · ·

1.4K

nine0009

Margaret Calvert (1936-present)

Margaret Calvert

Widely known as the “mother of modern information design,” Margaret Calvert was born in South Africa and moved to England as a teenager. After working as an illustrator at Chelsea University of Art, she was hired by renowned graphic designer Jock Kinnear as his assistant. Undoubtedly, the most significant of their joint achievements is the redesign of the entire UK road sign system, which replaced the mess of different fonts and obscure symbols that existed before. They started with signs on new highways, which the state paid attention to first of all in the late 50s, and then in the 60s they got to signs on other roads in the country. At 19In 64, Kinneir took Calvert as a partner and renamed his company Kinneir Calvert Associates. In addition to her work as a type artist, Calvert has been the principal graphic designer at the Royal College of Art since 1987. She works as a designer to this day and appears at every significant design conference like D&AD President's Lecture and Design Indaba.

Road signs by Margaret Calvert

Lucienne Day (1917-2010)

Lucienne Day

Wife of famed furniture designer Robin Day, Desiree Lucienne Conradi (later known as Lucienne Day) is recognized for her contributions to contemporary textile design. Her early career was hindered by World War II, and Day's big break came when she was asked to take part in the 1951 Festival of Britain. It was there that she debuted her famous textile design Calyx in the home and garden design section. Day is remembered today for bringing drab post-war Britain to life with her colorful and patterned designs, which over the years have been used in countless carpets, wallpapers and ceramics. Among her most notable clients, for whom she has created over 70 different patterns over a 10-year collaboration, are John Lewis, Liberty and Heal's Fabrics. nine0017

Lucienne Day Textile

Lucienne Day Textile

Ray Eames (1912-1988)

Another female designer and wife of designer Ray Eames. Her name is always mentioned when it comes to the emergence of modern American design in the middle of the 20th century. In 1940, after graduating from painting in New York, Ray met Charles at the Cranbrook Educational Community in Michigan. Less than a year later, Charles left his wife, moved to Chicago, and married Ray. They then moved to their first home in Los Angeles, where they spent most of their free time experimenting with plywood. It was at this time that they created their first mass product - a splint for a leg made of profiled plywood, which sold over 150,000 pieces by order of the US Navy at the end of World War II. They experimented with many different materials, including fiberglass, aluminum, as well as leather and plywood, as in the case of their famous lounge chair created in 1956 year. In the 60s and 70s, literally every CEO in America had such a chair. After Charles's death in 1978, Ray devoted the rest of her life to communicating her design philosophy through books, articles, and a huge number of speaking engagements. Ray left us in 1988, but her and Charles' legacy remains significant to this day thanks to the Eames Foundation, opened by their family.

Eams Lounge Chair

Eames Plastic Side Chair

Zaha Hadid (1950-2016)

Zaha Hadid

It was not easy for Zaha Hadid to become the first woman to win the Pritzker Prize for Architecture in 2003. Born in Iraq, she studied mathematics at the American University of Beirut before entering the Architectural Association School of Architecture. There she had a chance to study with the famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, who later took her as a partner with his new firm Office for Metropolitan Architecture. However, she was not destined to work there for very long. Instead, she chose to develop her own brand of neo-modernist architecture for which she became so famous. The early years of her career were marred by a series of abandoned projects, the most infamous being the Cardiff Bay Opera House. However, the Ohio Center for Contemporary Art, opened in 2003, forced critics of the time to take their words back. The opening of her first significant public building was remembered for the fact that all the staff were dressed in T-shirts with the inscription "If I were a man, would they call me a diva?" Hadid has created many resonant buildings in the UK. The most outstanding project, of course, is the Aquatics Center for the 2012 London Olympics. nine0017

Opera Cardiff Bay Opera House

Center for Water Sports for the 2012 Olympiad in London

Hella Jongrius (1963-to this day)

Hella Jongrius 9000

Netherlands. She is known for her belief in “longevity” and outright statements that “there is too much crap in design today.” Her work is known for its combination of traditional craft techniques and modern technology. Hella Jongerius opened her first studio Jongeriuslab at 1993 in Rotterdam, where she worked on private projects and projects for large clients such as the KLM airline and the New York office of the United Nations. Since 2012, she has been Art Director at Danskina Carpet Company and Art Director at Vitra since 2007. Among her recent projects is a large exhibition at the Design Museum in London, which focused on exploring the possibilities of color.

KLM business jet cabin

Large exhibition at Design Museum London

Paula Sher (1948-present)

One of the design giants in the US, Paula Sher has been a partner in Pentagram's New York office since 1991. Her big break came in the mid-1990s, with her signature style based on the typeface “The Public Theater” becoming her key work. Cher has never stopped creating great corporate identities for brands ranging from Citibank to Tiffany & Co. Her career as a teacher at the New York School of Fine Arts spans more than 20 years, in parallel with her presence at Cooper Union, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art. In addition, she worked at the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and in 2001 was awarded the institute's most prestigious award, the AIGA medal. It has been referenced in many books and films, including a monograph published by Unit Editions and a 2017 Netflix documentary on “the art of design.” nine0017

522-page monograph chronicling the life and work of Paula Sher

Nicole Avenue Identity

Susan Kare (1954-present)

She started her career at Apple in the 1980s as a graphic designer and digital font designer for the first Macintosh computer. It was then that while working at Apple, Susan Kare was rumored to have helped shape the modern user interface language. Her archive drawings for Macintosh on graph paper were recently bought by the New York Museum of Modern Art and presented at one of their exhibitions. nine0006

Morag Myerskoff (1963-present)

Hailing from north London, Morag Myerskoff has been applying his colorful aesthetic to interior design, installations and exhibition spaces for more than twenty years. Since the founding of Studio Myerscough in 1993, she has worked on commission, from the first permanent exhibition at the Design Museum on a new site in Kensington to a colorful refurbishment of rooms and wards at Sheffield Children's Hospital. In 2017, she was awarded a Royal Industrial Designer (RDI) by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) for her “significant contribution to society”. nine0006

Sheffield Children’s Hospital

Morag Myerskoff Cafe Interior


In contact with Yandex

Registration Forgot your password?

Forgot password

Username

Or Email

Login Registration

landscape design options or illusion

It is easy to distinguish a Chinese garden from a Japanese one, a regular one from a landscape one. Conventions such as style, national characteristics, and the like have become firmly established in our ideas about gardens, they allow us to classify and sort through. And everything is clear to everyone.


When you get to know a garden, is it possible to determine whether it was created by a man or a woman?

But besides this, gardens are also created by men and women. I wonder if it is possible, upon entering someone else's garden, to determine whether the owner or mistress created it? Are there "male" and "female" gardens? I asked myself this question while visiting two English gardens, in which, in my opinion, the influence of these two principles is very clearly felt - the female Yin and the male Yang. nine0006 Ads by

Sissinghurst Garden

Vita Sackville-West Garden. Probably one of the most famous and visited in Britain. It so happened that I knew nothing about the garden, except for the name. However, the thoughts that came to my mind while walking along it were subsequently confirmed in the text of a guidebook written by the son of a famous gardener.


Vita Sackville-West's garden has a distinct feminine influence

Behind the layout of the garden, combinations of colors, plants, behind the closed spaces of the "green rooms", I saw a Woman ( Yin - peace, emphasis on the inner ). Only she could "fall in love" with the ruins of the former prison at first sight, recognizing in them her romantic corner where happiness lives.


Perhaps only a woman could turn the ruins of the former prison into a romantic corner where happiness lives

Yew screens and benches in secluded corners; a white garden shimmering in the twilight; vintage roses growing at random; herbs creeping onto the paths, about which the hostess said: "... and do not interfere with them ..."; a garden of herbs - all this betrays a refined, romantic, bright female nature. nine0006


Herbal riot. The mistress of the garden said that they should not interfere

And one more thing: a tower from which you can watch your neighbors. And it doesn’t matter that they don’t exist, the main thing is that there is an opportunity. Is this not a feminine trait?

It is quite logical and natural that next to such a woman there was an intelligent and strong man ( Yang - movement, emphasis on the external ), who together with her created a masterpiece called "Garden of Vita Sackville West". By the way, she usually corrected these words: “This is not mine, this is OUR garden.” nine0006


Geometrically regular paths and sheared green borders do not in the least disturb the atmosphere of romantic mystery and slight understatement

A man’s hand in Singshurst is a classic lime alley (which Vita called “platform No. 5 on Charring Cross”), these are geometrically correct tracks. And an absolutely even lawn circle (Harold's "rondel"). It can be lovingly cut in any mood. Such a small patch of male independence.


Absolutely flat lawn — male territory

The corners created by Vita are defined by a sense of mystery, some kind of understatement and slight disorder. In a word, romance. And next to Harold - in a simple understandable geometry and symmetry, accuracy and "correctness".


Romantic negligence and understandable accuracy are harmoniously combined here

This is how I suddenly felt unity and harmony in a strange garden from the combination of two bright personalities - a man and a woman. Their independence, but also continuity. Maybe this is what makes this garden so attractive and popular? Maybe that's why you want to go back there? nine0006

Great Dixter

For a contrast, you should definitely go to the Great Dixter "male" garden. Its owner was distinguished by an absolute disregard for all the classical canons of garden art.


This garden attracts with boldness and independence. A real masculine character

Mixing seemingly incompatible colors, shapes and styles, placing topiary pyramids among wild uncut grasses contrary to generally accepted norms - all this, apparently, gave the owner a special aesthetic pleasure. This garden attracts with its masculine character, courage and independence. nine0006


The owner of this garden liked to combine things that, according to the classical canons of garden art, are considered incompatible. There is mixed ... what is not mixed! Not a mixborder, but a song about a petrel! Here, for sure - we, "loons, enjoy the happiness of battle ....". And yet, the border is really interesting.


Mixborder… of everything!

Let's move on. Well, tell me, why lay paths (like everyone else), if you can just cut them in the grass? And in general, what could be better than a lawn? nine0006


What could be better than a lawn? And the path can be simply cut in the grass.

Learn more