Pioneer Information
A native of Riga, Latvia, Jones (née Grinbergs) moved to the United States in 1950, living first in New York City before settling in Seattle, where she attended the University of Washington, earning a BArch in 1962. She spent two years as a designer for one of her professors, landscape architect Richard Haag. Upon graduation, she worked in William G. Teufel’s office until 1965, when she married fellow landscape architecture student Grant Jones, and subsequently spent two years working for Sasaki, Dawson, DeMay and Associates (now Sasaki) in Watertown, Massachusetts. After traveling extensively across South America and Europe, in 1968 Jones moved to Honolulu to work as a lead designer for Castle & Cooke where she contributed to the Mililani master plan, a planned suburban community on Oahu (1968). One year later she returned to Seattle and co-founded, with Grant, Jones & Jones Architects and Landscape Architects, which architect Johnpaul Jones (no relation) joined two years later.
Jones’s insightful design approach strives to understand and respect a site’s natural history. Her interdisciplinary practice has taken on varied projects, including parks—Commons Park, Denver (2001); greenways—Mountains-to-Sound Greenway, Washington (1991); and urban spaces—Pioneer Square Historic District and Fifth Avenue Streetscape, Seattle (1979 and 1981, respectively). She has helped revolutionize river planning methods with the Nooksack River Plan (1973) and San Diego River Park Master Plan (2013). Other master plans have included naturalistic zoo habitat designs at Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle (1976) and San Diego Zoo (1985) and a preservation plan for the Washington State Capitol Grounds (Olympia, 1992). The firm’s reach has also extended to Mexico, Singapore, and Micronesia.
Jones has lectured widely, including at her alma mater and the University of Oregon, and has served on the Seattle Historic Landmarks Preservation Board. In 1994 she was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and has received international accolades, including the first ASLA Firm Award (2003).
