Monday, October 10, 2016
Walter Hood
Response by Kate Orff
Walter Hood is an Oakland, CA-based designer, artist and educator. He is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s landscape architecture and environmental design department, which he chaired from 1998 to 2002. His studio practice, Hood Design, has been engaged in architectural commissions, urban design, art installations, and research since 1992.
Hood specializes in the urban civic realm. Within it, his work ranges from small community-based places to large-scale landscape commissions. His studio recently completed the Broad Museum Plaza in Los Angeles, the Coastlines sculpture trail, a series of sandstone towers in Wilimington, CA, Site/Cite a community installed mile-long street painting project in Opa Locka, FL, a 1.1-megawatt photovoltaic array within the campus landscape at the University at Buffalo, the Powell Street Promenade in San Francisco; and the new Sculpture Terrace for the Jackson Museum of Wildlife Art in Wyoming. Hood Design was also responsible for the gardens and landscape of the Herzog & de Meuron-designed De Young Museum in San Francisco. Earlier projects located in Oakland, such as Lafayette Square and Splash Pad Park, are regarded as transformative designs for the field of landscape architecture.
