Description

Walter Hood is a Professor at the University of California, BerkeleyÍs Landscape Architecture and Environmental Design Department, and chaired from 1998 to 2002. He established his Oakland, California_based studio in 1992. His studio, Hood Design, has been engaged in architectural commissions, urban design, art installations, and research since 1992. Earlier projects located in Oakland such as the Lafayette Square and Splash Pad Parks are regarded as transformative designs for the field of landscape architecture. Hood Design is also the designer for the gardens and landscape of the new De Young Museum; the new landscape for the California African American Museum in Los Angeles; and new Sculpture Terrace for the Jackson Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming. Recently, Hood won design competitions for the Center for Civil & Human Rights in Atlanta, GA; Garden Passage, a public artwork in Pittsburgh, PA; and a 1.1 megawatt photovoltaic array within the campus landscape at the University at Buffalo. In 2009-10 Walter Hood received the Cooper_Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Design, and in 2010 was bestowed the title, Master of Design, by Fast Company Magazine.

Hood has worked in a variety of settings including architecture, urban design, community planning, environmental art, and research. He was a fellow at the American Academy in Rome in Landscape Architecture in 1997. He has exhibited and lectured on his professional projects and theoretical works nationally and abroad. Hood also participated in the San Francisco Museum of Modern ArtÍs ñRevelatory Landscapesî Exhibition 2000_1. In 2010, Hood participated in Art Institute of Chicago MuseumÍs ñLearning Modernî exhibition, and was featured prominently in the February 2010 issue of ñArt in Americaî. This spring Hood was a selected winner for the Venice Biennale, Venice Italy and exhibited two projects: a green street and plaza for Center Street in Berkeley, California, and the Greenprint, an urban landscape vision for the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Walter Hood has several publications that illuminate his unique approach to the design of urban landscapes. His published monographs: Urban Diaries and Blues & Jazz Landscape Improvisations won an ASLA Research Award in 1996. In 2001 WalterÍs essay ñMacon Memoriesî was featured in the Princeton Press. His work had been featured in the exhibition and publication, ñOpenî New Designs for Public Spaces, Van Allen Institute, NY, Metropolis Magazine, the New York Times, and Dwell Magazine, etc. Hood is currently researching and writing a book entitled, Urban Landscapes: American Landscape Typologies. His teachings of the American Urban Landscape are intertwined with his design work creating a didactic approach to the design of urban landscapes.