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BIOGRAPHY
1.
A childhood in Santa Monica, CA, and Alamogordo, NM, Burton was one of six children; a self-described 鈥渢omboy鈥 who loved climbing trees. From the tree tops she could see the terrain and appreciate the world.
2.
The famed rocket testing range set 鈥渂eautiful fluffy white sand鈥 included a section for families. For eight-year-old Burton the desert was 鈥渇reedom鈥 and 鈥渁 quiet exploration in beauty.鈥
3.
Flailing as a medical student at UC Davis, Burton moves to UCLA, meets her first boyfriend, discovers the art department, and is entranced by horticulture professor Vernon Stoutemyer.
4.
Burton motorcycled with the Beverly Glen Boys Circuit; she met and traveled with artist Elyn Zimmerman hunting for rocks for the artist鈥檚 sculptures. Zimmerman strongly influenced Burton鈥檚 artistic development.
5.
Motorcycling throughout Japan, exploring the great gardens in Kyoto, and climbing Mt. Fuji are among 鈥渢he most transformative experiences鈥 of Burton鈥檚 life.
6.
A gap year working at Ace Gallery included adventures with artists Richard Serra and Robert Smithson, a life-long influence, and singing into a cave with composer Philip Glass.
7.
Post-Japan, a more independent and secure Burton studied architecture for three years learning about proportion, materiality and juxtaposition of spaces to program.
8.
Burton became interested in 鈥渕aking public spaces with living materials.鈥 She describes a beach garden she created for a terminally ill woman, which also serves as a posthumous reminder.
9.
Established in 1975, the office atmosphere is 鈥渇amily-like,鈥 鈥渃ollaborative鈥 and a place where 鈥渨e all get to learn.鈥
10.
Firm members describe what makes a Pamela Burton landscape: 鈥渆ffortless,鈥 鈥渋sn鈥檛 fussy,鈥 looks like we didn鈥檛 do anything, but every inch has been detailed and designed.鈥
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DESIGN
1.
Architect Charles Gwathmey鈥檚 teachings explored the union of spaces and the scale of room. Working on the Nilsson residence with architect Eugene Kupper, Burton experimented with how to make the landscape useful. Ian Davis鈥 course on Indian art included the ritual of walking.
2.
Days spent at the Quemado, New Mexico installation featuring a gird of 400 stainless steel poles yielded revelations about beauty, simplicity, and elegance. Burton says it鈥檚 critically important for landscape architects to know about art.
3.
Integral to a campus landscape is the need to feel safe and secure. Also essential are places for people to feel comfortable, to stop, sit and talk. Clear wayfinding is also critical.
4.
Burton says this type of survey, in which one captures grading, boundaries, setbacks, ambient and other lighting, and the most difficult aspects of a site, is essential to the success of a project.
5.
Burton reflects on moving through space and stimulating all the senses, from the fragrance of lemon verbena to different shaped leaves, their shininess and reflective quality, and their texture. She calls it 鈥渧isual touch.鈥
6.
A 1986 exhibition at Cal State Fullerton curated by Dextra Frankel and Burton includes the work of Burton and five other landscape architects, and helps elevate the visibility of the profession.
7.
After grad school, Burton spends a year at the construction office for the SUNY Stonybrook Health Services Center designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg. The architect relies on her because of her organizational skills and memory.
8.
Tough 鈥渦tility plants鈥 that are durable are the framework of a garden and define the proportions of a space. They also provide texture, color, and smell.
9.
Creating useful well-proportioned spaces that are beautiful can be achieved with careful editing along with canopy trees, plant materials between pavers and other design elements.
10.
Richard Hertz, Burton says, 鈥渋s the love of my life.鈥 His schedule at the Art Center College of Design permits this 鈥済reat writer鈥 who 鈥渒nows more about landscape architecture鈥 than anyone to be her sounding board.
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PROJECTS
1.
Burton鈥檚 first major project is influenced by the circumambulatory paths of Indian Chaitya Halls, the rock gardens of Kyoto, and includes a blue-colored installation by Lita Albuquerque in the driveway immortalized in a Julius Shulman photograph.
2.
Burton transformed a 鈥渉ouse on a hill鈥 with no gardens to a collection of outdoor rooms characterized by contrasts of masses and voids linked by a sequence of bluestones steps with plants tucked into the pockets.
3.
The car-centric school was destroyed by a 1994 earthquake. Burton鈥檚 design gives the campus a 鈥渉eart.鈥 A reduced size quad and additional canopy trees create a more intimate environment with better wayfinding.
4.
Working within a campus designed by landscape architect Edward Huntsman-Trout, Burton creates an intriguing link between the arts and sciences building using quotes inset into the paving.
5.
A Tishman-Speyer office complex is the setting for grids of trees and follies and an ingenious central garden that hides parking and vehicular traffic.
6.
鈥淓very garden has to have a big idea鈥 and at the Burton residence it is a family garden around a compact house; the rest is orchard.
7.
At a working olive and avocado ranch, the challenge was to bring a clarity of circulation and sequencing of spaces, and to use colorful and durable plant materials that could withstand temperature extremes.
8.
鈥淥ne of the most important projects 鈥 in my career.鈥 A series of outdoor rooms for sculpture in which each work has its own 鈥渢erritory and space鈥 so they鈥檙e not 鈥渟quawking to each other.鈥
9.
For Burton, the landscape of this complex had to offer families a 鈥減lace of repose.鈥 The gardens had to accommodate 鈥渨orking, walking, lounging, resting, waiting, wondering鈥 and they had to be built to last.
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