Gilmore D. Clarke

Gilmore David Clarke, a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, was a 1913 graduate of Cornell University, where he studied both landscape architecture and civil engineering. He joined the faculty of the School of Architecture at the university in 1935 as a professor of city and regional planning; in 1938, he became dean of the school, a position he held until retiring in 1950. In his professional practice, Clarke was involved in the design of the parkway system in Westchester County, New York, and as a consultant to the New York City Park Department on projects at the Central Park Zoo and Riverside Park. With Michael Rapuano he formed Clarke & Rapuano in White Plains, New York, in 1939; he retired from the firm in 1972. Among Clarke’s best-known works are the landscape architectural designs of the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs in New York and the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey; he was also a consultant for the United Nations headquarters project. Clarke was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, a trustee of both the American Academy in Rome and the American Museum of Natural History, and served on the Architectural Advisory Board of the U.S. Capitol. He was honored by the Architectural League of New York with a Gold Medal in 1931 and by the Municipal Arts Society of New York with a citation of merit in 1949.