Diana Balmori

Urban Designer; Landscape Designer / United States / Balmori Associates, Inc.

www.balmori.com

(1932–November 14, 2016). Diana Balmori, founding principal of Balmori Associates, brings a breadth of experience in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, ecology, architectural history, and sustainability to her New York-based landscape and urban design office. The firm’s application of innovative designs to green roofs, floating islands, and temporary landscapes has created a signature and functional aesthetic, establishing it as a leader in the field of urban design and the creation of new forms of public space. Balmori’s work has received numerous awards and includes a port area reclaimed by the Guggenheim Bilbao (Spain); the Botanical Research Institute of Texas in Fort Worth; and a 35,000-square-foot green roof for Silvercup Studios in Long Island City, New York. In 2009 the firm published a book of the proceedings of “Making Public Places,” a Twitter forum held at the offices of Balmori Associates.

Recognized internationally, Balmori was appointed a Senior Fellow in Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. in 2005. She is serving her second term on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts.

A design educator as well as a practitioner, Balmori teaches at the Yale School of Architecture where she was the William Henry Bishop Visiting Professor of Architectural Design in 2010.

She received a Ph.D. in urban history from the University of California, Los Angeles, after completing undergraduate work at the Universidad Nacional de Tucumán in Argentina.

Among the many books that Balmori has written or co-authored are A Landscape Manifesto, 2010; and Groundwork: Between Landscape and Architecture (with Joel Sanders), 2011.

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