Diana Balmori - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Gijón, Spain, Diana Balmori spent most of her childhood in Spain and England before her family settled in Argentina. Her mother Dorothy Ling (born in England) was an extraordinary musician and musicologist. Her father Clemente Hernando Balmori (born in Spain) was one of the most influential Spanish linguistic experts. Diana was an extremely imaginative and creative child, and was drawn to the arts at an early age. She learned to sing, dance, play piano, and her parents encouraged her to explore a wide range of mediums – literature and poetry, Latin and Greek, painting and music. As she forayed into the design world, she brought many of these influences with her, greatly informing her successful and unique design style.

She graduated from high school at the age of 16 and decided to study at the Architecture School at the National University of Tucumán in Argentina in the undergraduate program, and then emigrated to the United States. Balmori continued her education at the University of California at Los Angeles, earning her Ph.D in Urban History and graduating with highest honors. After graduation, she entered the world of academia, accepting a teaching position at the State University of New York and eventually holding undergraduate seminars in Landscape History at Yale School of Architecture. All the while, Balmori continued her own education, studying landscape architecture at Radcliffe College, until she was made partner at Cesar Pelli Associates, where she also founded their in-house Landscape Architecture department. She continued to work as a partner at CPA before leaving in 1990 to start her own firm, Balmori Associates.