Celebrating Willett Moss’s Elevation to ASLA Council of Fellows

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We are thrilled to announce that CMG Partner, Willett Moss, a landscape architect with an unwavering dedication to revitalizing cultural landscapes through design, has been named an ASLA Fellow. With an illustrious career spanning twenty-seven years, Willett’s work has made a significant impact on the preservation and celebration of community identity through the thoughtful design of public spaces. His commitment to preserving and enhancing cultural landscapes goes beyond landscape architecture, as he has become a trusted leader, mentor, and advisor in the CMG studio, the built environment profession, and his local communities.

Building from the Latent Identity of a Landscape

Willett’s passion for landscapes finds its roots in his childhood experiences in England, where he was inspired by the unique urban spaces of London and historic landscapes like Sissinghurst and Stourhead. These spaces ignited his interest in the intersection of history, landscape, and the physical experiences they create.

Stourhead Large. Palladian Bridge and Pantheon, Stourhead Gardens by Brian Smithson (Old Geordie) is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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Left image: Stourhead Large. Palladian Bridge and Pantheon, Stourhead Gardens by Brian Smithson (Old Geordie) is licensed under CC BY 2.0. Right image: "Made in Rome: The Aleatoric Landscape" exhibit at the 3A Gallery in San Francisco.

Fellowship of the American Academy: The Aleatoric Landscape

In recognition of his design investigations, Willett was honored as a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in 2006. During his Fellowship, he focused his research on historic landscapes and their contemporary use, exploring the meaning of these landscapes in relation to the choreography of the body in space. His work, titled “The Aleatoric Landscape,” showcased his artistic talents through painting, sculpture, and writing, capturing the character and vibrancy of landscapes that integrate spontaneity, chance, and randomness in their formation.

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One pivotal moment in Willett's career was his contribution to the restoration of the beloved Crissy Field in San Francisco while working at Hargreaves Associates. This experience reinforced his belief in the sculptural potential of landscapes as profoundly memorable experiences.

One pivotal moment in Willett’s career was his contribution to the restoration of the beloved Crissy Field in San Francisco while working at Hargreaves Associates. This experience reinforced his belief in the sculptural potential of landscapes as profoundly memorable experiences.

Starting CMG Landscape Architecture

In 2000, Willett co-founded CMG Landscape Architecture, a firm with a design approach rooted in pragmatism, innovation, and collaboration. He has led the firm’s largest culturally and historically significant projects over the past twenty-three years including Civic Center Public Space Design, UC Berkeley Lower Sproul Plaza, and Sunnylands Retreat. Willett’s approach emphasizes the creation of purposeful places that conserve history, engage visitors, and cultivate new collective memories. By closely listening to communities and building trust, he ensures that his landscapes reflect the history and unique identity of a place while providing contemporary value to the present community.

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Chris Guillard, Willett Moss, and Kevin Conger founded CMG Landscape Architecture in 2000 and advanced a design approach rooted in pragmatism, the pursuit of innovation, and collaboration.

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Willett touring Mission Creek Stormwater Park in San Francisco with fellow landscape architects. Mission Creek Stormwater Park is a leading example of green infrastructure and urban stormwater treatment, with a focus on biotreatment bioswales, shoreline stabilization, materiality, and ecology.

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Civic Center Public Space Plan creates a place for all San Franciscans to come together, in celebration and protest, respite and play, health and refuge. Willett’s design prioritizes the urban forest and radically increased trees and planting for equity, ecological benefit, beauty, and shelter, and to frame space for daily activities and special events.

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Willett led the competition-winning proposal for St. James Park that centers on place-keeping—preserving and restoring the park’s character-defining features while introducing new uses to create new value and serve the growing downtown population.

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Willett leading ASLA Conference Field Session at Willie "Woo Woo" Playground, San Francisco, CA. The park offers the San Francisco Chinatown community a space outside of their homes to reconnect, play, and gather—goals important to one of densest neighborhoods in the USA, especially amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

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For a decade, Willett led a series of projects for the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. Willett’s leadership reduced Sunnylands’ dependence on precious groundwater and reconnect the visitor experience to the desert valley landscape.

“I’d like to acknowledge and thank my collaborators who have helped realize these thoughtful and evocative spaces that inspire and connect people.” – Willett Moss

Willett Moss’s designation as an ASLA Fellow is a testament to his exemplary career as a landscape architect and his unwavering commitment to the revitalization of cultural landscapes through design. With a passion for the intersection of history, landscape, and the physical experience they create, Willett continues to craft purposeful and memorable public spaces.

Ideas

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Democratic Public Space

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In ancient Greek cities, the agora brought people together in the same space for daily life, including commerce, politics, and social interaction. This was at a time when the European idea of democracy, or “people power” was conceived. There is a direct relationship between people sharing space with one another and caring about one another. Inclusive public space that brings together diverse people from all walks of life is more important than ever for sustaining democracy.

Places

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Mission Creek Stormwater Park

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Mission Creek Stormwater Park is a leading example of green infrastructure, with a focus on urban stormwater treatment in bioswales and bioretention basins, shoreline stabilization, and ecology. The multi-use promenade serves as a dedicated pedestrian and bike entrance to the new Mission Bay neighborhood in San Francisco. Set along Mission Creek, the waterfront experience is met with unmatched views of San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Giants’ ballpark, and Twin Peaks.
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Mint Plaza

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Surrounded on both sides by culturally significant landmark buildings, the historical alley was seen as an opportunity to anchor a new network of open space for pedestrian connections from Union Square into the South of Market District. Essential to this effort was a public-private partnership that resulted in the first privately funded conversion of a city street to a public plaza. Today, Mint Plaza is a bridge between cultures and communities, serving an incredible cross-section of San Francisco.
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Civic Center Public Space Design

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Civic Center is at the heart of San Francisco’s democracy – a vital open space for the city’s highest-density neighborhoods and a national historic landmark. After decades of neglect and failed revitalization attempts, a new vision is developed through a community-based process bringing together 75 institutions and community groups, thousands of city residents and workers, and governmental stakeholders to reimagine what contemporary democratic public space could be. The Civic Center Public Space Design transforms the historic district into thriving social infrastructure, prioritizing public life and local needs.
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Sunnylands Retreat

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CMG collaborated with the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands for a decade to transform the historic estate into a Camp David of the West. Many projects were undertaken, beginning with the adaptive reuse of employee housing as the Cottages Retreat, a campus for VIP convocation, and culminating with construction of the Administration Campus, a place for community interaction that manifests Sunnylands’ identity and legacy.
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Sunnylands Restoration

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The Sunnylands estate is reimagined with new program in a new era of sustainability and resource management. CMG set out to reconcile the design integrity, historic uses, and future goals and mission of this historic property. To manage the future of the Annenberg family’s 200-acre retreat estate in the Coachella Valley desert, it was essential to identify the key contributing landscape elements, the origin of their conception, and their integrity after nearly half a century of use, growth, and change.
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California State University Fullerton Student Housing

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Creating a new campus heart for the California State University Fullerton district, the open space provides a large, flexible event lawn as well as a multitude of smaller social gathering spaces for outdoor classrooms, study, and relaxation in the shade of broad canopy trees. The 8.63-acre site includes 4 acres of new campus passive and active programming – accommodating student activity of all scales.
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Park Habitat

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Park Habitat is a porous and heavily planted, mixed-use office development set along Park Avenue in the rapidly evolving downtown San Jose. The project presents a radical vision for public space on private property and contributes to the recasting of Park Avenue as a garden street.
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Park Paseo

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The transformation of Park Paseo from an oversized vehicular boulevard to a pedestrian-first garden street acts as the next stage of CMG’s San Jose Streetlife Plan – a social and ecological innovation in the heart of downtown San Jose. Beginning at the front steps of the Center for Performing Arts, Park Paseo will be a prototype for social attractions and amenities, and a leading example of a verdant urban plaza that prioritizes public life.