Walter Hood Receives the 2024 Vincent Scully Prize for Landscape Design Excellence

The National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. has just announced Walter Hood as the 26th recipient of the prestigious Vincent Scully Prize. Walter Hood is a celebrated landscape designer working in public spaces and urban environments. Established in 1999, this award honors outstanding contributions in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design through practice, scholarship, or criticism. Hood now joins the ranks of past notable winners like Theaster Gates, Dolores Hayden, and Mabel O. Wilson.

Recognized for his impactful work designing sustainable landscapes that enhance urban communities and empower marginalized groups, Hood founded Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California, in 1992. His practices focus on integrating art, landscape design, and urban research to respond to each project’s context. His major projects include the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, the Oakland Museum of California, and the recently opened Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park in Jacksonville, Florida.

In addition to his professional practice, Hood serves as chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley, where he influences the next generation of designers and planners. His distinguished career has earned him several major awards, including the 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2019 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and the Architectural League’s President’s Medal in 2021.

Hood focuses particularly on urban public space, and unlike many of his peers in landscape design, he makes a point of working at both the scale of large, public projects such as the De Young Museum in San Francisco and the Broad Museum in Los Angeles, and the intimate scale of community-based neighborhood projects. His recent work at the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, has been particularly admired. We were mindful of Vincent Scully’s own history as a scholar who took pride in being an activist on social and political issues. –The Prize Jury

Architecture awards recognize excellence in design, innovation, and contributions to the built environment, often honoring individuals and projects that have a significant impact on society, culture, and urban development. In other similar news, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, founders of the renowned architecture firm SANAA, have been announced as the recipients of the 2025 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand by the Créateurs Design Awards. Additionally, The British Museum has shortlisted five architect-led teams for the final stage of its International Architectural Competition, including 6a Architects, David Chipperfield Architects, Eric Parry Architects and Jamie Fobert Architects, Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture, and OMA.