Angela Danadjieva is a

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manageme ...

who founded the multidisciplinary design firm Danadjieva & Koenig Associates with her partner Thomas Koenig. She is well known for her work with Lawrence Halprin & Associates, including the Ira Keller Fountain in

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

, Oregon and

Freeway Park Freeway Park, officially known as Jim Ellis Freeway Park, is an urban park in Seattle, Washington, United States, connecting the city's downtown to the Washington State Convention Center and First Hill. The park sits atop a section of Interstat ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington.

Early life and education

Danadjieva was born in 1931 in

Sofia, Bulgaria Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

. She graduated from Bulgaria's State University in Sofia in 1960 with a degree in architecture. She worked as a set designer and art director for the Bulgarian film industry for 7 years. Danadjieva won the

Golden Rose Award The Golden Rose Award, one of America’s oldest literary prizes, was inaugurated in 1919. The rose was modeled after the Gold Rose which is now in the Cluny Museum in Paris. ThNew England Poetry Clubawards the Rose annually for American poetry. ...

(the equivalent to an Oscar award in Bulgaria) for her work on the movie ''The Captured Squadron''. In 1963 Danadjieva and her partner Ivan Tzvetin entered an international design competition in Cuba, and placed second for their design of a plaza, museum, and monument. After this, Danadjieva became increasingly interested in architecture, and went to study at the

École des Beaux Arts École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région ...

in Paris from 1964 to 1966. While there, Danadjieva worked for the architectural firm Denieul-Marty-Paoli.

Career in the United States

In 1965, while Danadjieva was at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

, she and Ivan Tzvetin won first prize in an international design competition for the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza. While the project was never built, this brought Danadjieva to the United States. She met

Lawrence Halprin Lawrence Halprin (July 1, 1916 – October 25, 2009) was an American landscape architect, designer and teacher. Beginning his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, in 1949, Halprin often collaborated with a local circle of modernist a ...

soon after, and joined his firm Halprin and Associates as a project designer. There, from 1967 to 1976, she led more than twenty urban design and city-planning projects with the firm, including the Washington State Capitol in Olympia, the Jewish Home of San Francisco, and the

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the su ...

in Richmond. Notably, she was lead designer on the Ira

Keller Fountain Park Keller Fountain Park is a city park in downtown Portland, Oregon. Originally named Forecourt Fountain or Auditorium Forecourt, the park opened in 1970 across Third Avenue from what was then Civic Auditorium. In 1978, the park was renamed after ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, and

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. After leaving Halprin and Associates in 1976, Danadjieva founded Danadjieva & Koenig Associates with architect Thomas Koenig. Their major projects include the

White River State Park White River State Park is an urban park in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana. Situated along the eastern and western banks of its namesake White River, the park covers . The park is home to numerous attractions, including the Eiteljorg Museum of A ...

Indianapolis, Indiana Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Mari ...

, a planning study for

James River Park System The James River Parks System (also known as James River Park or simply JRPS) is a municipal park in Richmond, Virginia. It consists of multiple sections along the James River between the Huguenot Memorial Bridge in the west to a half mile (0.8&n ...

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, and an extension to Seattle's Freeway Park to include the Washington State Convention and Trade Center. Freeway Park Seattle

Danadjieva maintains her practice with Koenig today in Tiburon, California.

Major works

* Ira Keller Fountain Park – Portland, Oregon *

– Seattle, Washington * Thomas Polk Park - Charlotte, North Carolina * Washington State Capitol – Olympia, Washington * Jewish Home of San Francisco – San Francisco, California * Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – Richmond, Virginia *

– Indianapolis, Indiana *

– Richmond, Virginia * Freeway Park Extension – Seattle, Washington

References

External links

A Woman, a Sculpture, a Park
2007 article in

The Stranger (newspaper) ''The Stranger'' is an alternative biweekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, U.S. The paper's principal competitor is '' The Seattle Weekly'', owned by Sound Publishing, Inc. History ''The Stranger'' was founded in July 1991 by Tim Keck, wh ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Danadjieva, Angela American landscape architects Women landscape architects École des Beaux-Arts alumni People from Sofia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people