Landscape and architecture are two modes of the same visual and spatial continuum. Working within a rational ordered system, we introduce metaphorical themes and the layering of history to create gardens that are narratives, thereby becoming journeys which awaken memories. With this, the viewer becomes part of a sequential discovery within the garden. In so doing, art, architecture and landscape merge with discourses such as history and literature to create public and private spaces, encouraging synthetic bliss and symbolic healing.

Pamela Burton

Pamela Burton is a landscape architect and well known teacher and lecturer with over twenty years of experience in designing imaginative urban, campus and residential spaces. Her work combines a passion for plant materials with the history of landscape in designing architectural spaces which have symbolic resonance. In 1975, after completing a Master of Architecture degree at UCLA, she founded her own practice in Santa Monica. Among the leaders of contemporary designers, Pamela Burton focuses on reconstructing the relationship of landscape architecture to the urban environment. As an international speaker, she has lectured at a number of universities in the United States, Australia, Asia and Europe. Such explorations in landscape have led to design symposia and lectures on such topics as Garden as Sanctuary, Memory and Landscape, Balance and Uncertainty, Civil Landscapes, and Poetics of the Garden.

As principal of the eleven person firm, Pamela Burton oversees design and management, while playing a decisive role in site and program analyses, and development of design concepts. Recently completed projects include: The Landscape Restoration Masterplan for California State University at Northridge; the Avery Center at California Institute of Technology with Moore, Ruble, Yudell, Architects; Millard Sheets Art Center with Anshen + Allen Architects; The Art and Science Walk at Scripps College in Claremont; and Colton Avenue and Gateways for the University of Redlands, as well as large scale residential projects and low income housing.

Pamela Burton’s work has been featured in the book Garden Design, published by Simon & Schuster, as well as Landscape Architecture; ransforming the American Garden, and Process. She has co-written a number of articles, including Healing and Cultivation, appearing in Modulus, and Scripted Places, which appeared in Landscape Review. Currently, she is working on Reinventing the Modernist Landscape, an article about her work on several houses designed by Richard Neutra. Having earned a number of awards from AIA, ASLA and municipal agencies, Pamela Burton’s work has been included in many shows and galleries.

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