Beth Diamond is a landscape theorist, designer and cultural instigator who believes in landscape architecture as an art form and a visionary medium for social change and evolution. Her interests stem from a fascination with the qualities and expressions of the built world as a mirror of human civilization and her work in landscape architecture focuses on strategies to transform societies in sustainable and culturally affirming ways.

Awards and Grants:
Honorable mention in the National Endowment for the Arts International Design Competition for Lexington, Kentucky's New Courthouse Square. Design for civic plaza celebrating African-American and Appalachian contributions to Kentucky culture.

Research Interests:
Research interests focus on landscape as a visionary medium, the intersection of theory and art in the built environment, strategies for multicultural expression as a catalyst for urban infrastructure and the role of public space in democratic society.

Current/Recent Research:
Current research explores the revolutionary implications of Cubism for three-dimensional landscape space. New manuscript and recent talk given at the CELA national conference in Athens, Georgia examines the history and theory behind the principles and attempted expression of cubist space in the landscape and lays the foundation for a critical examination of new landscape projects currently breaking the mold of conventional park design.

Teaching Interests:
Teaches courses on contemporary design theory and landscape history with an emphasis on alternative narratives of indigenous peoples, minority and working class populations and women.

Current/Recent Teaching:
Recent studio work in urban design has centered on transforming brownfield sites along the Los Angeles River corridor into parks for surrounding Chinese, Latino, and Laotian communities that is both resonant of contemporary urban identity and revealing of hidden layers of history.

Selected Publications:

Awakening the Public Realm: Instigating Democratic Space Published in Landscape Journal 23:1-04 Article uncovering the conflictual tensions of multicultural democracy buried under the neutrality of public space and the potential role of education in encouraging future generations to design for an interactive public realm. 2004

Urban Fabric: Lexington's New Courthouse Plaza Article dealing with social and regional identity in the national design competition for Lexington's New Courthouse Plaza focusing on the absence and potential for cultural expression of the city's segregated African-American community. Co-authored with Krista Schneider. 2003

Revelatory Landscapes: Exploring New Territories Exhibit review of five site-specific environmental art installations in the SF Bay area by landscape architects. Landscape Journal, Volume 21, Number 1 2002

The Shattered Mirror: Teaching Today's Students to be Tomorrow's Visionaries Pedagogical strategies for pushing the boundaries in beginning design. Published in the proceedings for the CELA 2000 conference at the University of Guelph 2002