DIANA BALMORI, FASLA

Founding Partner

Diana Balmori, Ph.D., FASLA, IFLA, founded Balmori Associates in 1990.  The landscape and urban design practice is recognized internationally for designing sustainable infrastructures that serves as an interface between landscape and architecture.  In 2006, she created BAL/LABs within Balmori Associates, to further push the boundaries of architecture, art and engineering: Green Roofs, Floating Islands, Temporary Landscapes, Forms of Representation, and Zero Waste City, among others.

Diana had an active voice in national policy and decision-making on topics that relate to landscape design, architecture and urban planning. She served as: member of The United States Commission of Fine Arts in Washington, DC; a Senior Fellow of Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC; a member of the Allston Development Group at Harvard University, Boston, MA; on the Board of The Van Alen Institute, New York City; The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for the World Trade Center Site, New York City; and as a Committee Member for the Comprehensive Design Plan for the White House.

Diana’s opinion-editorials and articles about her work have been featured in DwellThe Architects NewspaperMonocleEl PaisPBSWNYCDesign Observer, and Utne Reader, which named her one of fifty “Visionaries Who Are Changing Your World” in 2009. She was named Fast Company’s Third Most Creative People in Business (June 2013) and one of ten Innovators by Architectural Digest (September 2013).

Her book A Landscape Manifesto (Yale University Press, 2010) has received international attention and was recently translated into Chinese. Her most recent book is Drawing and Reinventing Landscape (A/D Wiley, 2014).  Since 1993 she was been a Critic at Yale University in both the School of Architecture and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Diana Balmori died on Monday, 14th November 2016 in New York City.

 

Professional
Founder, Balmori Associates
Fellow, American Society of Landscape Architects

Academic
Ph.D. in Urban History, Highest Honors, University of California, Los Angeles
Certificate in Landscape Design, Radcliffe College
Undergraduate Architecture program, University of Tucumán, Argentina
Joint Appointment, Yale School of Architecture and Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Davenport Chair of Architectural Design, Yale School of Architecture
William Henry Bishop Visiting Professor of Architectural Design, Yale School of Architecture

Organization
U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, Washington D.C.
Senior Fellow in Garden and Landscape Studies, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C.
Board Member of the Van Alen Institute, New York City
Board Minetta Brook (a Public Art organization)
Civic Alliance World Trade Center Memorial Committee Chair
Comprehensive Design Landscape Plan for the White House
National Rails-to-Trails Organization Committee Member

 

Diana Balmori Memorial Page
New York Times
Washington Post
The Architect's Newspaper
Architectural Record
Inhabitat
Curbed
Fast Co
Newsday
Landscape Architecture Magazine
The Dirt
Archinect
Art Forum
Architect
ABC.es
La Nacion
Asociación Española de Paisajistas
New Haven Register


Lectures online

February 17, 2016, Rice School of Architecture and Rice Design Alliance, Houston, TX
Projective Infrastructures

November 5, 2014, Strand Bookstore, New York, NY
Drawing and Reinventing Landscape

April 12, 2015, Greenroofs & Walls of the World Virtual Summit
Green Roofs to New Cities

April 9, 2014, Old Stone Church, Cleveland, OH
What Can Landscape Do For Cities

March 23, 2013, ASLA, Los Angeles, CA
Inside the LA Studio with Balmori Associates

March 3, 2014, Art Institute of Chicago and Architecture and Design Society, Chicago, IL
Diana Balmori

January 31, 2013, University of Kentucky College of Design, Lexington, KY
Design Adds Value to the Commons

January 31, 2012, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
Interface: Between Landscape and Architecture