Kathryn Gustafson
Founding Partner
Kathryn Gustafson is an internationally acclaimed landscape architect with over 40 years of distinguished practice. As founding partner of two international offices, Gustafson Porter + Bowman in London and until recently, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) in Seattle, Kathryn is renowned for creating distinctive sculptural landscapes which engage at a fundamental human level.
Kathryn conceives of all material as possessing organic qualities that responds to the seasons, as well as air, heat, sun and wind. Her form-making practice with terrain is all about movement and her work frames the art of landscape as a composition, combining complex elements both visible and otherwise, such as light, sound, and atmosphere. Her working method of modelling in clay enables her to create sensually pleasing and beguilingly simple landforms.
Kathryn’s work from both firms includes the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain, Old Market Square in Nottingham, the Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam, Seattle City Hall Plaza, the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the landscape design for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in Washington, DC. Kathryn’s current projects include a civic project in Senegal, Valencia Parque Central, Rhine Terrace at the Novartis Campus in Basel, Marina One in Singapore, and Taikoo Place in Hong Kong. These designs offer solace from the clamour of daily life as well as providing a unifying structure for the multi-layered requirements of the public realm.
Prior to establishing Gustafson Porter + Bowman, Kathryn worked in France from 1980 until 1997, where she was the lead landscape designer for the headquarters of Shell (1990), Esso (1992) and a model factory for L’Oréal (1993). Other significant works include the award-winning Jardins de l’Imaginaire in Terrasson la Villedieu (1995), which is classed by the French Ministry of culture as one of the most notable gardens in France. Her work at the public plaza in Evry (1991) was one of the first landscape projects worldwide to create a flexible space with water jets.
Kathryn lectures internationally and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architecture, an honorary Royal Designer for Industry member and a medallist of the French Academy of Architecture. She is the recipient of the Architects’ Journal Jane Drew Prize 1998, the 2001 Chrysler Design Award, the 2008 ASLA Design Medal, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize for Architecture 2012 and the 8th Obayashi Prize, Japan in 2014. In 2011, Kathryn and her GGN partners received the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Landscape Architecture and in 2019 she was also given the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award by the IFLA.