Walter Hood is an artist, designer and educator based in Oakland, CA. He regularly exhibits and lectures on professional and theoretical projects nationally and internationally. His studio, Hood Design has been engaged in architectural commissions, urban design, art installations, and research since 1992. Walter is also a professor at the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design. He was chair of the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department from 1998 to 2002.
Walter was recently appointed as the inaugural holder of the David K. Woo Chair in Environmental Design. Other honors include the Goldman Sachs Design Fellow for the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, assisting the museum staff in reconceptualizing its public spaces, AIA Award for Collaborative Achievement and a USA Character Approved Honor by NBC Universal. In 2010, Walter received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Design. He is also a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Walter’s work was recently featured in Art Institute of Chicago’s “Learning Modern” exhibition, and was featured prominently in the February 2010 issue of “Art in America”. Last spring, Walter was a selected winner for the Venice Biennale and exhibited two projects: a green street and plaza for Center Street in Berkeley, California, and the Greenprint, an urban landscape vision for the Hill District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The work of his studio features landscape, architectural, urban design and art installation projects. Many of his works are regarded as transformative designs within the field of landscape architecture.
Several of Walter’s publications illuminate his unique approach to the design of urban spaces. His published monographs: Urban Diaries and Blues & Jazz Landscape Improvisations won an ASLA Research Award in 1996. In 2001, Walter’s essay “Macon Memories” was featured in the Princeton Press.