Balmori Associates a New York City based urban and landscape design firm, was founded by Diana Balmori in 1990. The practice is recognized worldwide for its creative interfacing of landscape and architecture. Through research, collaboration and innovation they explore and expand the boundaries between nature and structure.Our firm’s approach is rooted in coupling design ideas with anunderstanding of environmental, social and physical needs. Balmor i Associates has established a signature and functional aesthetic byapplying inventive design thinking to a careful study of the social aspects of ecological, hydrological and temporal dimensions of projects. As distinguished leaders in the field of urban design and the innovative public space making, we use design to give form to the processes of sustainability. Whether developing new parks,redesigning existing open spaces, or creating recreational venues that integrate architecture and landscape, we seek to produce‘green infrastructures’ with designs that invite community interaction while revealing the constructed and natural operations of a site.Our diverse portfolio includes executed projects at all scales, and award-winning competition designs. In urban design projects,Balmori Associates works closely with municipal agencies,community, public and private organizations to interweave the many landscape and ecological systems that comprise successfulurban spaces. The firm has created public plazas for corporateclients in Tokyo, university courtyards for academic institutionsacross the United States, and internationally recognized competition submissions.Sustainability is a central concern in all our work. In 1998, BalmoriAssociates’ Master Plan won the international competition for thewaterfront development of the Abondiobarra district of Bilbao,Spain. We provided design leadership on the greenroof at Silvercup Studios in Queens, New York, the largest scientifically monitored green roof in the United States, and the New York City Winter Garden at the World Financial Center, completed in 1998 and restored in 2002. Currently, we are in the first building phase of Sejong Administrative Town, a zero-waste urban plan in South Korea.Balmori Associates has garnered numerous awards for design excellence: the 2004 AIA/COTE Top Ten Green Projects Award, the 2004 Green Roofs for Healthy Cities Award; the 2004 Environmental Design & Construction Magazine Excellence in Design Awards;the 2005 AIA New York Design Award for the Staten Island2012 Olympic Equestrian Facility; and the 2004 Fifth EuropeanUrban and Regional Planning Awards (European Council of TownPlanners) as well as the Best Project Special Award “Citta d’Aqua’of the Biennale di Venezia for the Bilbao Abandoibarra waterfront.The firm’s most recent has won first prizes in several design competitions, including the recent Museum of the Mammoth in Yakustk, Russia (AIA New York Project Honor Award) ,Campa delos Ingleses in Spain, as well as Best of the Year Award Interior Design 2008 and AIA NYS 2009 ‘Award of Excellence’ for their Eco -Residential design for 684 Broadway. Diana Balmori has received the 2009 Highest Honor Award for Sustainability Leadership, The Institute of Green Professionals (IGP)2009 ‘Award of Excellence’ AIA New York State, and was named by Utne Reader as one of the 50 Visionaries who are Changing Your World.