professor of landscape architecture, uc berkeley principal, hood design, berkeley, ca ghazaleh...
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PROFESSOR OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, UC BERKELEYPRINCIPAL, HOOD DESIGN, BERKELEY, CA
GHAZALEH TOUTOUNCHI
Walter J. Hood
NO:085309
introduction
Walter Hood is Professor and former Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and
principal of Hood Design in Oakland, CA. Hood has worked in a variety of settings including
architecture, landscape architecture, art, community and urban design, planning and research. He was a fellow at
the American Academy in Rome in Landscape Architecture, 1997.
He has exhibited and lectured on his professional projects and theoretical works nationally and abroad.
His work was recently featured in the “Open, New Designs For Public Spaces, Van Allen Institute, NY, and his firm
designed the gardens and landscape for the New De Young Museum, San Francisco with Swiss architects Herzog and
de Meuron. He is currently designing the landscape for the Autry National Museum in Los Angeles, CA,; designing an
archeological garden within the context of the South Lawn Project at the University of Virginia, and developing a set
of monuments and markers for a six mile waterfront trail in Oakland, CA.
Walter
Hood’s
published
monographs
Urban Diaries and Blues & Jazz Landscape Improvisations illuminate his unique approach to the design of urban landscapes.
These works won an ASLA Research award in 1996. His essay “Macon Memories” is featured in Sites of Memory, Princeton Press, 2001.
Hood participated in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s “Revelatory Landscapes” Exhibition 2000-2001.
He is currently researching and writing a book entitled Urban Landscapes; American Landscape Typologies.
Hood is currently enrolled in the distinguished Master of Fine Arts Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in studio arts and sculpture, exploring the role of sculpture and urbanism. His area of teaching, the American Urban Landscape, is intertwined with his design work creating a didactic approach to the design of urban landscapes.
.
Hood’s work spans the range from local, community-based projects
such as Splash Pad Park, a converted traffic island alongside Interstate 580 in Oakland, California—to higher-profile commissions— like the grounds for the new de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park—which are earning Hood national prominence.
Hood’s innovative public spaces are known for the way they embrace the essence of urban environments and for their links to urban redevelopment and neighborhood revitalization.
With a design approach that blends landscape architecture, anthropology, history, ecology, and community advocacy, Hood’s landscapes balance an appreciation of the physical and social heritage of a site with observation and understanding of the contemporary needs and behaviors of its users.
The Sculpture Garden at the de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA; Hood Design, landscape architects.
Walter Hood:
Urban
Diaries
Beautifully illustrated with original drawings, models,
and text by African-American landscape
architect Walter Hood, this volume presents a new
approach to issues of urban landscape design. Hood
calls his method "'improvisation,' because it
draws on the cultural traditions of flexibility and
adaptively that emerge from marginal
circumstances." Hood offers alternative strategies for designing open spaces
for disenfranchised, neglected, and isolated
neighborhoods.
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Distinguished Master of Fine Arts, 2007
University of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Master of Landscape Architecture, 1989
University of California, Berkeley, Calif.
Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture, 1981
Principal, 1993- Hood Design, Oakland,
Calif.
Education Studio
Awards
Virginia Key Beach Museum Competition, Miami Fl
1st Prize w/Huff and Gooden Architects 2005
Merit Award, ASLA, Northern Chapter
Oakland Waterfront 2005 Top Honor Award, Excellence
on the Waterfront Waterfront Center Award, Oakland
Waterfront October 2004 APWA 2004 Distinguished
Project of the Year Award Splash Pad Park Mayor’s Proclamation, "Walter
Hood Day", Pioneering Achievements in Urban
Landscape Design
City of Oakland, April 24, 2004 National Award of Honor
American Society of Landscape Architecture, 2003
Project: Baldwin Hills Master Plan 2001
Best of the Best, California Park and Recreation Society 2002
Project: Lafayette Square Park Merit Award, ASLA Southern
California Chapter Project: Baldwin Hills Master Plan
2001 Place Design Award,
EDRA/Places, Third Annual Award 1999.
Project: Lafayette Square Park.
Poplar Street Civic Design Competition, First Prize. Macon, Georgia. Jan. 1998
Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture, The American Academy in Rome, 1996-1997.
“Urban Diaries” and “Jazz and Blues Landscape Improvisations”
American Society of Landscape Architecture National Award of Merit: Research, 1994
Mount Vernon Riverfront Plan, Community Development Award State of Washington, 1988
Design Arts Competition, Merit Award, 1988 University of California Arboretum at Davis
ASLA Certificate For Excellence in the study of Landscape Design, 1987 Thomas Church Design Award for Excellence in Landscape Design
Lafayette Square Park, City of Oakland, California,
1999 Courtland Creek Park Oakland, California, 1990-
1997 Framework for Oakland
Public Art Program, Oakland Cultural
Arts with Hasrah and Coburn, 1992-93
Osaka/ San Francisco Sister City Garden. Osaka, Japan
with Garrett Eckbo, 1990
Selected Projects:
Foster Homestead and Burial Ground, South Lawn,
University of Virginia, Charlottesville VA, 2008
1-880 /Coleman Ave Gateway, San Jose AirportSan Jose Public Art Program, 2007
West Oakland Historic Train Depot Plaza, Oakland CA, 2008
Phillip Lifeways Plan, Charleston SC, Spoleto Art Program, 2006 Autry National Center/Southwest
Museum Landscape Los Angeles CA, 2008
East Bay Waterfront Trail, Oakland, California
with EDAW and Associates, City of Oakland, California, 2002- Splash Pad Park Renovation and
Streetscape Improvement Project, City of Oakland, California 2004
New de Young Museum Landscape Design, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA with Herzog & de Meuron Architects, 2005
Lion Creek Crossing Park, Oakland CA, EBALC, 2006
Poplar Street, City of Macon, Georgia, 2005
Abraham Lincoln Brigade Memorial, w/ Ann Chamberlain San Francisco CA Embarcadero, 2007
Baldwin Hills Park Master Plan, Los Angeles, CA with Mia Lehrer & Associates, 2001
North Richmond Urban Design and Transportation Plan, Richmond, CA City of Richmond, Contra Costa County and Metropolitan Transportation Commissionwith Dinwiddie & Assoc. and Dowling Assoc., 2000.
Richmond Neighborhood Prototype Project, City of Richmond, CA., 1999-2000
Yerba Buena Lane, San Francisco, CA. with the Office of Cheryl Barton, 2005
Exhibitions
2+2 , Hood Design and Reed Hilderbrann University of Texas, Austin November -January 2006
Groundworks: Environmental Collaboration in Contemporary Art Oct 14 -Dec 11, 2005
"Shifting Lines; Braddock PA“ Regina Gouger Miller Gallery Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh PA
Cornerstone Gardens, Awakenings, Sonoma, CA, April 2004-2005 Eucalyptus Soliloqy.
“Landscape Improvisations” North Carolina A&T State University Carver Hall,
Greensboro, North Carolina, April 1-8, 1994
Open, New Designs For Public Space, Van Allen Institute, New York, NY. Spring 2003
BACCA 1010, Landscape Paintings, Berkeley CA, Oct.6 - Oct 26 2001
Revelatory Landscapes, SFMOMA Exhibition and Installation,
Oakland, Calif. May 2001-Nov 2001, with Douglas Hollis and Ollie Wilson
Project Row Housing, “Awakenings”,
Rice University, Houston, Texas Oct. 2001- Jan. 2001
Cooper Hewitt National Design Triennial
Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York City, May 2000
Harvard University 100 Year Celebration, January 2000
“Urban Diaries”, University Art Museum, Berkeley, Calif., March-June 1995
Academic Appointments
Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental PlanningCollege of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. 1998 to 2002Professor, Department of Landscape ArchitectureCollege of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley, Calif. 1990 to presentVisiting Scholar, University of Karlshue, Germany, Summer 2000Visting Scholar, University of Versailles, France, Summer 1997Visiting Scholar, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Spring 1995Resident Instructor in Urban DesignInternational Laboratory of Architecture and Urban Design Urbino, Italy, Summer, 1991 & 1992
example
Walter Hood is best known for developing landscapes for public spaces and areas, and much of his work occurs in the environment of urban redevelopment projects. "I prefer to work in the public landscape," said Hood. "The work is rooted in a very strong, social, participatory, grassroots ethic." FAMSF Director Harry Parker said "We feel that Walter Hood's work reflects the ideas of community, diversity, and openness embodied by the New de Young, and believe that his landscape design will accentuate and compliment what will be a world-class landmark building."
Macon Yards, Poplar Street, Macon, GA, 2004
example
Environments designed by Walter Hood ranged from parks and plazas to streets and housing developments. Recent Bay Area projects include the revitalization of downtown Oakland's venerable Lafayette Square Park, adaptation of a long-disused railway corridor in East Oakland's Courtland Creek Park, and development work on San Francisco's Yerba Buena Lane, which will stretch between Market and Mission Streets and offer pedestrian access to Yerba Buena Gardens. In addition, Hood Design recently won an invited competition to design Macon, Georgia's Poplar Street improvement and redevelopment project. The winning design, "Macon's Yards," will be implemented in 2001. Hood Design was also selected to participate in Revelatory Landscapes, a program of temporary site installations sponsored by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Baisley Park Community Garden, Jamaica, Queens, NY, 2006.
The Heart of the City and Strawberry Creek Plaza Project
IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIAStructurally, a Heart of the City Project in Berkeley's downtown embracing an ecologically oriented design concept would:1. Create a one block pedestrian street on Center Street between Oxford Street and Shattuck Avenue.2. Create a small public plaza.3. Incorporate a "daylighted" Strawberry Creek into the site design.4. Create buildings that utilize sustainable design principles, including solar energy.
The People's Park
Here we profile two practitioners, Walter Hood and Shane Coen, who
shape the space in which we play in very different ways. Based in
Oakland, California, Hood is at home in the public realm, while in
Minneapolis, Minnesota, Coen is one of a growing number of landscape architects who are involved with
what surrounds a house before it’s even built.
The public realm is the last true democratic space,” says self-described urbanism and UC Berkeley professor Walter Hood.
Poplar Street in Macon, GA,
Walter Hood responded to lackluster building conditions on Poplar Street in Macon, GA, and at the de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, CA.
His design for Poplar Street in Macon, GA began as a 180-foot-wide expanse
of paving and now exists as a flourishing public plaza and outdoor
marketplace. Hoping to "remind people of who they are," Hood
designed tables to represent cotton bales and exposed an overgrown
monument to secession of the Confederacy. By engaging the local
economy and traditions, such as Macon’s brick makers and sweet
grass basket weavers, he cut costs while strengthening the community’s
connection with the space.
characteristics of Lafayette Park
Lafayette Square, centralhillock, located on the siteof a historic observatory
Design: Walter Hood, of Hood Design, Oakland, Calif.,in collaboration with Willie Pettus (architect, communityfacilitator) and Rich Seyfarth (landscape architect).
Splash Pad Park, Oakland, California, 2003.
New Modernism in Gardens & Architecture
Zahid thinks the sense of modern design iscaptured in the new de Young art museumin Golden Gate Park. Walter J. Hood isthe landscape architect for the museum.
the urban parks and master planning projects, with special focus on the meaningful integration of art and design with site and culture.
Phillips Site Plan. Drawing by Walter Hood.
the "overgrown" from the people on the Phillips community near Charleston, South Carolina.
the suburban openness, each family lives in a giant green room that is furnished with a house, outbuildings, automobiles and gardens. Walls of the room expand and contract through the interaction of the humans and the overgrown. in this rural landscape the overgrown was the thick, green stuff that made the edges of property. The overgrown expanded naturally providing more protection and was cut back when the owner need more space .