Walter Hood on Connecting People and Place Through Landscape Architecture

To the landscape architect Walter Hood, “place” is a nebulous concept made meaningful only through the illumination of its history and the people who have inhabited it. Hood has dedicated his career to this very perspective through his roles as creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California, and as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley, where he has taught since 1990. His projects include a series of conceptual gardens at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina; the grounds of the campus of the tech company Nvidia in Santa Clara, California; and the landscape of San Francisco’s de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. Currently, he’s at work on the wayfinding for the Barack Obama Presidential Library in Chicago; a new park in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina; and twin memorials for Emory University’s campuses in Oxford and Atlanta, Georgia.

On this episode, Hood discusses the intersection of social justice and landscape architecture, his arguments against what we traditionally deem “memorials” or “monuments,” and the power of language to literally shape the world around us.

Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels.

Show notes: 

[03:34] Black Landscapes Matter

[03:39] The World They Made Together

[08:18] American Academy in Rome

[08:27] Carthage

[08:55] Loma Prieta Earthquake

[13:48] Monticello

[13:50] National Memorial for Peace and Justice

[13:53] Gadsden’s Wharf

[14:28] Lorraine Motel

[16:07] Montgomery County Justice Center

[18:40] Double Sights

[24:37] Macon Yards

[25:32] The Power of Place

[28:59] Confederate Obelisk

[29:55] Splash Pad Park

[30:16] Lafayette Square Park

[38:21] International African American Museum

[38:25] “Native(s)”

[39:54] Water Table

[40:51] McColl Park

[42:28] Twin Memorials

[47:11] Octagon House

[48:43] de Young Museum

[51:13] The Broad

[54:14] The Future of Nostalgia

[54:53] Blues & Jazz Landscape Improvisations

[58:01] Solar Strand

[01:06:02] Art Institute of Chicago