Landscape architect and innovative urbanist Diana Balmori has died at age 84, as announced by her firm's website. The Spanish-born Balmori, who founded her own firm in New York City at age 58, was known for her site-defining and inventive landscape architecture works, including the Abandoibarra District in Bilbao, Spain, the Prairie Waterway Stormwater Park in Minnesota, and numerous green roofs in Manhattan. In addition to their striking aesthetic beauty, Balmori's projects integrated sustainable practices, resulting in a holistic pairing of nature and architecture.

Abandoibarra Masterplan, Bilbao, Spain

Balmori, who graduated from high school at age 16, started her career in academia, taking a teaching position at the State University of New York shortly after receiving her Ph.D in urban history from UCLA. Eventually, she became a partner at Cesar Pelli Associates (now known as Pelli, Clarke, Pelli, Architects), creating the firm's in-house Landscape Architecture department. Her death has attracted numerous tributes from architectural figures on social media including Paul Goldberger, who wrote on Twitter that Balmori "truly understood and enhanced the connection between nature and cities."

Balmori, who in a video on her firm's website explained that "we are always seeking a new artistic vocabulary," earned numerous accolades throughout her career, including honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, the AIA, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. While running her practice, she continued to be involved in academia. In addition to being a visiting professor at Yale and a Senior Fellow in Garden and Landscape studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., she also became a Fellow for the Dumbarton Oaks Garden & Landscape History Institute and Harvard University.

GrowOnUs Floating Landscape in the Gowanus Canal, NY 

Green roof at Silvercup Studios, NY

Her firm's manifesto read in part: "The main tenet of our work is to set up a different type of relationship between ourselves and each of the elements of nature: soil, water, air, plants and animals. We want to change our ways of dealing with them, treat them as parts of ourselves." As founding partner of Balmori Associates, Diana has left behind two active partners: Noemie LaFaurie-Debany and Javier Gonzalez-Campana.

Here's a video of Balmori explaining her green roof concept:

Check out more of Balmori's work in the gallery below.