Walter Hood is a landscape architect, designer, and public artist whose work transforms urban spaces into environments that celebrate community, history, and ecological sustainability. Hood’s projects blend architecture, landscape design, and fine arts with a deep commitment to social engagement, creating spaces that empower residents and foster a sense of belonging. Over his career, he has reimagined traffic islands, vacant lots, freeway underpasses, and other overlooked urban sites, turning them into vibrant public spaces that challenge the legacy of neglect in historically marginalized neighborhoods.

Hood’s work is celebrated for its sensitivity to cultural memory and its ability to weave together social, environmental, and aesthetic concerns. By combining innovative design strategies with participatory processes, he creates landscapes that are both socially transformative and ecologically resilient. His projects have been recognized nationally and internationally, demonstrating how public space can reflect and amplify the histories, identities, and aspirations of the communities it serves.

In this video, Hood speaks to Beatrice Galilee about the ways in which public landscapes can foster connection, resilience, and collective memory, and how design can respond to social, environmental, and cultural challenges in urban life.