Pamela Burton is an internationally known landscape architect who has practiced in Santa Monica since 1975. Her firm is well-known for creating designs that evolve from a site's cultural and physical environment and are informed by geography, ecology, and history. Pamela Burton & Company designs landscapes and gardens for civic, university, commercial, and residential projects.

Recent and ongoing projects include Colorado Center (now called Yahoo Center) in Santa Monica; the Claire Trevor Arts Plaza at the University of California, Irvine, with Maya Lin; Santa Monica Public Library; the Rockefeller Center in New York; Jusidman residence, Mexico City; and Rochavera Office complex in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Burton has written and given lectures on such topics as “Garden as Sanctuary,” “Memory and Landscape,” “Balance and Uncertainty,” and “Poetics of the Garden.” She has taught and lectured at the University of Southern California, SCI-Arc, and the University of Virginia.

Artist’s Statement:
"The motivation for Private Landscapes: Modernist Gardens in Southern California came from issues I confronted in the late nineties while refurbishing gardens of several houses in Los Angeles designed in the mid-fifties by Richard Neutra. The book explores different strategies of garden renewal. I found that the most creative approach allowed adaptations of past intentions to mingle with new innovations."

The first book of its kind, Private Landscapes profiles twenty significant gardens-- and their accompanying houses-- by these celebrated architects. Using contemporary photographs by Julius Shulman and newly commissioned color images, along with plans and plant lists, Private Landscapes provides a never-before-seen look at these gardens. As beautiful and practical now as they were 50 years ago, these designs continue to provide inspiration for gardeners and designers everywhere."