Employee Spotlight: Dani Winston
How has your career grown since joining Arterra?
I joined Arterra after finishing my MLA at Berkeley and my experiences here have shaped the evolution of my sense of design, process, and craft. I enjoy seeing projects evolve through the entire process from concept to construction.
What motivates you?
Adventure, travel, nature, art, culture, and craft.
What or who inspired you to pursue a career in landscape architecture?
My path to a career in landscape architecture has been circuitous, inspired by a diverse, ever-growing set of influences and experiences. Before discovering landscape architecture, I pursued a career in photography. In high school I was inspired by the works of Eugene Smith and Sebastião Salgado who wove beautifully stark, stunningly powerful, visual narratives of the human condition; often in landscapes of despair. I was also drawn to the minimalist documentary style and subject matter of Bernd and Hilla Becher’s typologies of industrial structures. My undergraduate education was in art, design, and photography where I became enchanted by the expressionism of Turner and Friedrich, and the composition of Degas, Géricault, and Jacques-Louis David. I was initially drawn to landscape architecture through the works of Corner, Latz, and Hagg. In particular, the High Line, Landschaft Park, and Gasworks. The prospect of ecological restoration and public spaces of peculiar beauty rising from the derelict postindustrial intrigued me. I was scouting locations for a photoshoot on the west side of Manhattan and there was this abandoned rail line; fenced off, overgrown, and running through buildings overhead. What if I could get up there, I thought? I felt a spark when I discovered the movement to turn it into a public park. My time pursuing a master’s degree in landscape architecture at UC Berkeley provided additional inspiration and perspective. As I examined the influence of the Japanese tea house on modernist American residential architecture. I was particularly struck by the drawings of Rapson and Saarinen along with the photography of Julius Sherman illustrating the seamless experience joining interior and landscape without partition. There, I had the good fortune to learn from many inspiring professors each providing a unique perspective, allowing me to see the bigger story, to think and see differently. Traveling and exploring architectural sites from the monumentalism of Tikal and Angkor, to the minimalism of Ryōan-ji, Ōbai-in, and Ryōgen-in, to the overwhelming scale and intricacies of the monolithic temple that is Cave 18 at Elora, and the intimacy of Dada Hari Ni Vav hidden among the bustle of Ahmedabad have left an indelible mark on my soul and my sense of designed spaces, how they function and what they mean.
What has been your favorite project so far?
Camp Redwood. A minimalist, rustic escape down sinuous paths meandering through towering redwoods; revealing intimate, yet subtlety luxurious, destinations.
If you could choose anyone, who would be your mentor?
A combination of Kathryn Gustafson, Walter Hood, Tom Kundig, and Kengo Kuma.