I chose to study landscape architecture in Scotland, at the Edinburgh College of Art, as I wanted my landscape studies to be based in a historical context. My course of study ranged from 17th Century French gardens including Vaux Le Vicomte and Versailles designed by André Le Nôtre, to England’s Georgian gardens from the 18th century designed by Sir Lancelot “Capability” Brown followed by the 20th century Arts and Crafts garden designers Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll. The history of art and design in landscape is very important to me, from both a technical and inspiration standpoint. The knowledge I gained studying the historical English/European landscapes has left an indelible footprint on my design principles.

In the United States, I studied landscape architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. There I furthered my knowledge of the American landscape beginning with Fredrick Law Olmsted the father of American landscape architecture, through to more contemporary landscape architects such as Martha Schwartz.