About

Clare Cooper Marcus is Professor Emerita in the Departments of Architecture and Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the Principal of Healing Landscapes, a consulting firm that specializes in an evidence-based design approach to the programming, design, and evaluation of outdoor spaces in community and healthcare settings.

Professor Marcus is internationally recognized for her research on the social and psychological implications of design, particularly urban open space, affordable housing, healing gardens, and environments for children and  the elderly. She has lectured and consulted in the United States, Canada, Britain, Scandinavia, Netherlands, Italy, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, and China. Her healthcare projects include post-occupancy evaluations of existing spaces with proposals for change; consulting with landscape architects and architects on the programming and design of new spaces from initial concept to working drawings.  Consulting work has included gardens and landscapes in acute care hospitals, children’s hospitals, community hospitals, retirement communities, memory care/dementia facilities, and a prison hospice.

Marcus has been recognized for her work with awards from the Center for Health Design, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Horticultural Therapy Association, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

She has authored/co-authored/edited numerous publications including notably Easter Hill  Village (1975), Housing As If People Mattered (1984), House as a Mirror of Self (1994), People Places (1998), Healing Gardens (1999),  Iona Dreaming: The Healing Power of Place – A Memoir (2010), Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces (2014).

Contact Clare Cooper Marcus to discuss your interests and needs for therapeutic landscapes in healthcare – claremarcus27@gmail.com