Women Who Shaped Garden History
Kathryn Gustafson is one of the world's leading landscape architects, known for sculptural landforms that shape public spaces in dramatic and experiential ways. Her projects span three continents and include some of the most celebrated public landscapes of the past three decades.
Gustafson studied fashion design in New York before moving to France to study landscape architecture at the École Nationale Supérieure du Paysage in Versailles. Her approach to landscape is sculptural: she begins the design process by working in clay, modeling the landforms that will define the space. The result is landscapes that are experienced physically, through movement and changing perspective, rather than understood from a single viewpoint.
Gustafson's projects include the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain in Hyde Park, London; the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago; the Garden of Forgiveness in Beirut; and projects at the Palace of Versailles. She is a partner in Gustafson Porter + Bowman, based in London, and GGN (Gustafson Guthrie Nichol), based in Seattle.
Gustafson's work has expanded the definition of what landscape architecture can be, demonstrating that the shaping of land itself — not just the placement of plants — is a powerful design tool. She represents a contemporary approach that sees landscape architecture as an art form on the scale of public life, and she has been recognized with numerous international awards.