Don Brinkerhoff, the landscape designer for 17 Las Vegas casino resorts and the first landscape designer inducted into the American Gaming Association’s Hall of Fame for his 1995 redesign of the world-famous Las Vegas Boulevard, died July 16. He was 90 years old.
Brinkerhoff’s remarkable life and career in landscape architecture spanned the professional and academic realms. He was CEO of Lifescapes International Inc., a premier landscape architecture firm he co-founded with his wife, Barbara.
Brinkerhoff (’52, ornamental horticulture) and his team worked on more than 1,000 projects worldwide — from master-planned communities and model home complexes, to parks and golf resorts. More than 30 resorts and casinos around the world are attributed to him.
A Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, he was the first landscape architect inducted into the California Building Industry Hall of Fame. Brinkerhoff was also responsible for introducing the terms “hardscape” and “softscape” into the discipline’s lexicon.
After establishing the Lifescapes International Scholarship in Cal Poly Pomona’s landscape architecture department, Brinkerhoff followed up in 2011 with the Don Brinkerhoff Landscape Architecture Scholarship, the largest scholarship awarded in the College of Environmental Design. Each year it provides $10,000 to a second- or third-year landscape architecture student with a demonstrated need and ability as a self-starter, a leader and a team player.
The scholarships were his way of paying it forward: when he was a struggling student, landscape architecture department chair Howard Boltz helped him secure a $1,000 Sears Roebuck Company scholarship — roughly $10,000 in today’s dollars. The scholarship allowed Brinkerhoff to finish his senior year. The rest was history.
Brinkerhoff continued making annual donations to the Don Brinkerhoff Landscape Architecture Scholarship after its 2011 launch. In lieu of flowers, his family instead requests contributions to the program. Donations can be made online or by mail.
Please makes checks payable to Cal Poly Pomona Philanthropic Foundation (Memo line: Don Brinkerhoff Landscape Architecture Scholarship) and mail to:
Cal Poly Pomona
Development Department
PO Box 3121
Pomona, CA 91769
For questions, contact Jenkins Shannon at (909) 869-5128 or jshannon@cpp.edu.