Walter Hood primarily focuses on architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design. He is currently a Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. In the design process, Hood engages community members in order to maintain the social histories of a space, gaining information about how residents use and relate to spaces.

He has been living in Oakland for over 20 years, and he founded Hood Design Studio in 1992. It focuses on ecologically sustainable social art and design in primarily urban spaces.

He earned a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from North Carolina AT&T State University in 1981, a Master of Architecture and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1989, and a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013. Most recently, Hood received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2019.

Haunts:

  • Lafayette Square Park, 635 11th Street, Oakland, CA 94607.
  • Splash Pad Park, 746 Grand Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610.
  • de Young Museum Gardens, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco, CA 94118.

These are all places that Hood planned the landscape design for and revitalized. Part of his artistic and community practice has been transforming neglected urban landscapes (e.g., vacant lots, abandoned parks, and freeway overpasses) and incorporating community voices into the design and restoration.

~ by Michal Jones ~

External Links:

Hood Design Studio: http://www.hooddesignstudio.com/

Faculty Page: https://ced.berkeley.edu/ced/faculty-staff/walter-hood

Article on Hood’s MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grant: https://sf.curbed.com/2019/9/25/20883684/oakland-architect-walter-hood-wins-macarthur-genius-grant

https://www.macfound.org/fellows/1040/

https://splashpad.org/about/

https://aadn.gsd.harvard.edu/people/walter-hood/

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/25/764390131/landscape-artist-walter-hood-receives-macarthur-genius-grant

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