American, b. 1951
Michael Van Valkenburgh is the Creative Director of MVVA, the landscape architecture firm he founded in 1982. Raised in upstate New York, he received a B.S. from the Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and a M.F.A. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For his leadership in design, Van Valkenburgh was awarded the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Brooklyn Bridge Park, an ongoing project of MVVA’s since 1999, earned the 2021 Rosa Barba International Prize of Landscape Architecture as well as the 2010 Brendan Gill Prize, which recognizes the work of art that “best captures the spirit and energy of New York City.” In 1989, Michael was a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. His book Designing a Garden (The Monacelli Press, 2019) traces the creation of the Monk’s Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 2012.
Van Valkenburgh lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is the Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Emeritus at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where he has taught since 1982 and served as Department Chairman from 1991 to 1996. He was also elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Van Valkenburgh lives in Brooklyn, NY. He is the Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, Emeritus at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, where he has taught since 1982 and served as Department Chairman from 1991 to 1996. He was also elected into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
