Michael R. Van Valkenburgh, Charles Eliot Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture, teaches landscape architecture studios.  He has taught at the GSD since 1982, served as program director from 1987-89 and for a term as chairman of the department from 1991-96.

50 Avenue Montaigne Courtyard, Paris, France, MVVA

As lead principal of MVVA Inc., with offices in New York City and Cambridge, Van Valkenburgh has designed a wide range of project types including public parks (e.g., Teardrop Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York City); civic landscapes (e.g., the redesign of the north end of Union Square Park and Green Market); and institutional landscapes (Master Plan for the Landscape of Princeton University and Bailey Plaza at Cornell). He has been the recipient of several ASLA design awards including the President's Top Design Award from the ASLA for his Alumnae Valley Restoration in 2006.  In addition, Van Valkenburgh was a Design Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and won the Cooper Hewitt's National Design Award in 2005.

He received a BS in landscape architecture from Cornell University and an MLA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Yale University Press will publish a book on the work of MVVA in 2008, edited by Anita Berrizbeitia.