About Michael Painter
Creekside’s phase 1 Landscape Designer
Michael Painter (1935 – 2018) was an American landscape architect and urban designer based in San Francisco, California. He was a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. His most notable project is the Presidio Parkway, a roadway through the Presidio National Park from the Golden Gate Bridge. Other notable projects include the John F. Kennedy Grave Site at Arlington National Cemetery, the Great Highway/Ocean Beach Re-Construction in San Francisco,Children’s Playground in Golden Gate Park,[7] the College of San Mateo, Twin Peaks overlook in San Francisco, Hunter’s Point Hilltop Park in San Francisco,AT&T Administrative Center in San Ramon, Lafayette Park and the Blair House in Washington D.C., Aquatic Park in Berkeley, Hennepin Center in Minneapolis, State Compensation Insurance Fund in San Francisco, Genentech Campus in South San Francisco, the HP Corporate Headquarters in Palo Alto, and the Asilomar Conference Center in Monterey.
While attending the University of California, Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, his instructor Mai Arbegast recommended Painter to the Lawrence Halprin office as a student intern, where he worked for two years starting in 1956. At the Halprin firm, Painter was involved with projects such as the Stanford Shopping Center, the consulate in Fukuoka Japan, enhancements to UC Berkeley and Davis campuses, and the Baptist Seminary in Mill Valley, California. On the Baptist Seminary project he served as project manager, interacting with the project architects, John Carl Warnecke and Associates.
In 1958, Painter jointed the Warnecke firm to start a landscape architecture section. There he worked on projects such as the Del Monte Shopping Center, Asilomar, the Hawaiian State Capitol, and the UC Santa Cruz master plan. In 1961 he was made an associate of the firm, and in 1964, a partner. He left briefly to work with landscape architect Peter Walker, then returned to the Warnecke firm.
In 1961 Painter began working with the Warnecke Washington, D. C. office on projects such as the Kennedy gravesite in Arlington National Cemetery, Lafayette Park, the Georgetown Library, the Blair House garden, and the master plan for the Naval Academy campus at Annapolis. Painter created the design direction of the Kennedy gravesite project.
In 1965, Warnecke proposed that Painter attend Harvard University to study urban design. Painter continued to manage the landscape team during the year long Masters program at Harvard. Following graduation, Painter spent the summer in Washington D.C. to refine the Kennedy Grave design and supervise construction. Bunny Mellon, a close friend of Jacqueline Kennedy, helped with the design and consulted on plant materials.
About Jonathan Plant
Creekside’s phase 2 Landscape Designer
Jonathan Plant, originally from the Bay Area and now living in the Napa Valley, has a degree from U.C. Santa Cruz in anthropology and sculpture; the Kew Diploma in Horticulture with Honors from Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, England; and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a licensed Landscape Architect in the State of California.
As a horticulturist, Jonathan worked for the Royal Horticultural Society at Wisley, England, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, England and Les Cedras in the South of France. He also spent three years as the Horticulturist in charge of the California Native Collections at the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. Jonathan is an active lecturer on horticultural and design topics to garden groups, symposiums and professional societies.