The 25 – Kathryn Herman

New England Design Hall of Famer Kathryn Herman, principal and owner of the Connecticut-based firm that bears her name, creates and manages award-winning residential and commercial landscapes throughout the United States, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.

A trustee of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Herman has won numerous awards, including an Arthur Ross Award, Stanford White Awards, Palladio Awards, and Connecticut ASLA Awards.

Her own historic garden, which reflects her passion for classic British landscapes with thematic plantings and a 114-foot-long garden room packed with perennials and backed by mature trees, has been featured in Architectural Digest and Gardens Illustrated.

The gardens Herman designs are known for their relaxed yet elegant simplicity.

“We look for intentional lack of precision–gardens that have a certain wildness to them, yet tamed, have a tension that brings them to life,” she says. “Being able to perform transformation through manipulation of earth and bringing to bear our aesthetics creates a conversation. Through this conversation comes innovative design.”

Her garden rooms, which are relevant to the presented architecture, add whimsy, creating spaces that are thought-provoking.

As a child, Herman was drawn to creating spaces, sketching floorplans of houses and gardens she wanted to inhabit.

“There was always a garden attached to the house,” she says, adding that some of her strongest memories are of being in the garden with her grandmother in Georgia and gardening with her mother in Connecticut. “Combining my interest in the built environment and my love of horticulture led me to landscape design.”

In addition to her landscape design projects, Herman supports the work of the next generation through the Institute of Architecture & Art’s Bunny Mellon Curricula, which holds an awards competition.

“Shining a light on this work also shines a light on the entire field and practice of landscape design,” she says. “The more recognition, the better.”