Guest blogger, Gail Greet Hannah

Peter Walker, FASLA, is recognized in the US and abroad for a half-century of inspired and influential landscape architecture. A designer, planner, consultant and adviser, he has focused on exploring the relationship of nature and culture. Walker co-founded Sasaki, Walker and Associates (later SWA Group) in 1957 and in 1983 formed Peter Walker and Partners, now PWP Landscape Architecture. Recent PWP projects include the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas; Jamison Square in Portland; the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco; and Barangaroo, a restored historic dock in the harbor of Sydney, Australia.

Walker is currently engaged in creating one of the most visible and emotionally-charged landscapes in the world as co-designer with Michael Arad of the National September 11^th Memorial. The Memorial, which encompasses almost half of the 16-acre former World Trade Center site, is the subject of compelling interest to multiple constituencies, from victim’s families to community leaders to municipal agencies.

We talked to Peter Walker in San Francisco in May 2011, following a roundtable discussion on interdisciplinary process sponsored by Landscape Forms and attended by leading landscape architects and other design professionals. Here are his eloquent observations on the Memorial project, the special challenge of creating a living park that is also a fitting tribute to the dead, and on a measure of success he calls “cultural sustainability.”

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Gail Greet Hannah is a writer on design process, products and the environment and a frequent contributor to Landscape Forms publications.

Recent books are Elements of Design, Princeton Architectural Press, 2002; and, with co-author Bill Main, Site Furnishings: A Complete Guide to the Planning, Selection and Use of Landscape Furniture and Amenities, Wiley, 2009.