Add a tribute to Richard

Grant Revell

Dear Richard:

Grant here. I wonder how you are doing? You ought to know we miss you ever so much. Just the thought of you going is utterly tragic. Impossible.

Again, I wanted to thank you for your collegial friendship and your massive contributions to the worlds’ landscape architecture. You made a huge difference to my life. And to our students. And to many others. I also want to pay tribute to the amazing women in your celebrated life - Robyn, Tatum and Fran. I hope they are coping. They kept you real, acute, productive, joyful and fun loving.

Your life was full of greatness.

I thank you for your encouragement to be outspoken, to swing with brittle branches, to be mindful of forbidden fruits, and to keep asking the difficult questions.

Miss you dearly Richard.

My critical friend.

Love, Grant

Katherine McMahon, National Museum of Australia

We're deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Richard Weller, one of the landscape architects behind the Museum's iconic Garden of Australian Dreams (GOAD).

An internationally renowned designer, writer and scholar, Richard worked in collaboration with fellow landscape architect Vladimir Sitta and alongside ARM Architecture, to realise the GOAD.

The GOAD challenged and reimagined how we see and interpret our landscape and Australian identity and is a tribute to his bold creativity and ingenuity.

Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this difficult time

Terri-ann White, Upswell Publishing

Rest in Peace, Richard Weller. It was a pleasure to work with you around ideas and books and art and resistance to lazy thinking. Love from Boomtown.

Jillian Walliss, UniMelb

‘At the end of 2022, Richard Weller returned to Australia after completing his decade-long term as the Martin and Margy Meyerson Chair of Urbanism and Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. Many were looking forward to Richard's injection of energy, optimism and intelligence into both academia and practice. Sadly, his contributions were cut short.

Despite his death at just 61 years, Richard's career produced an impressive catalogue of projects, exhibits, books and essays, guest lectures, competition wins and teaching awards. In late 2023, we had the privilege of exhibiting his ODDS & ENDS: The Landscape Architecture of Richard Weller and hosting the accompanying public lecture ENDNOTES.

Recognised around the globe as a designer, thinker and provocateur – and for many a much-loved teacher, mentor and friend, Richard’s skill as a leader and communicator in landscape architecture was unparalleled within Australia. He will be missed.

Billie Giles-Corti

I was so saddened to hear news of the loss of Richard. Richard was a big thinker and influenced colleagues, students, policymakers and practitioners. We had many debates about his ‘value’s-free’ provocations about ways we could build cities, yet it always ended up with a laugh. Richard made us think and he tried to accommodate a public health academic’s value-ladened ideas about what would create healthy cities: it was appreciated. He was a generous colleague. His contribution to the field was enormous and he will be sadly missed. My heartfelt thoughts are with Tatum and his family and friends.

Helen Whitbread

Richard your passion for landscape design and its capacity to make a difference was and continues to be infectious. You opened my eyes to history, philosophy, and the poetics of landscape in a way that forever changed my life. Thank you. My heart goes out to Tatum and those close to you and I hope in time that they will be able to draw comfort from the immensely rich life you led together and the profound legacy you leave.

AILA Fresh (WA Chapter)

As current students or recent graduates of landscape architecture, the closest most of us came to Richard Weller’s physical orbit was attending one of his recent Perth-based guest lectures, like the ‘Designing a Planet’ last year or the AILA Design Dialogue in 2023. Some of us may have even been fortunate enough to meet him at the UWA School of Design’s 30th anniversary celebrations a couple of years ago. Even after leaving UWA for UPenn, he continued to have a presence at UWA. He was never just a ‘guest lecturer’ in our education. He was always still teaching us.

It is obvious to us that Richard’s fingerprints are all over our learning experience. We have explored and critiqued his work in lectures, essays and presentations. We have also just sat and lost ourselves in his evocative, thought-provoking books and journals. Many of us also marveled at how influential and prolific he was and now here we were in the same building where a lot of this creativity and deep thinking had happened.

There is a long-held urban myth in Perth that there is only two degrees of separation between everyone instead of the usual seven. Our two degrees is that we were, or still are, the students of his students. Our school of design is hurting – not for the academic loss, but for Richard himself.

As students and recent graduates of landscape architecture, AILA Fresh wishes to express our sincere gratitude for Richard’s enduring wisdom and offer our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

Vale Richard Weller.

Mark Jacques, RMIT

The last time I spoke to Richard was about books. At the end of his time at Penn, and knowing he was unwell and soon to return to Perth, he had opened the doors of his office and invited students to come and see his vast collection of books. If they came armed with a glass of champagne and were prepared to have a proper chat, they were permitted to leave with part of his library. At the end of the afternoon, no books remained. This seems now to be the essence of Richard - generous, oral and discursive. He embodied an exchange based on ideas. Richard was the rarest of practitioner academics – one whose practice and scholarship embodied equal ambition and inspired equal impact. Importantly for the discipline, he was remarkable in his unapologetic belief in design. For Richard, design was an act of intentionality that compelled the designer to take responsibility at scale – from the scale of ideas presented in a gallery to the scale of ideas for the design of the planet itself. Like the diaspora of his library, Richard’s legacy will not be contained by institutions or archives but will be carried in conversation, practice, and provocations that will continue to shape the future of Landscape Architecture.

Cole Hendrigan

I recall Richard just laying down the facts on the situation. The situation of this land supporting us and our incongruity in making something like a tableau of lives on it. He would drawing it out for us to see. That's us.
Not with a judgement or a precast value, no. Just clear eyed, nostalgia free, implications of our current trajectory.

As a small example, I recall also his proposition, drawn, of Perth and Geraldton growing together and named the perverse conurbation: Gerth. That made me chuckle.

I recall also his PhD student supervision. I was invited to listen and comment as a peer outsider. It was such an honour to sit with his students and him; such intellect in one room. Heady times.

I also went several times to his Canberra Garden of Australian Dreams. What daring, imagination and verve to pull it off.

We are better - as a culture - for having had Richard among us.

Marion Fulker

Vale to Prof. Richard Weller, who passed away last week. I can't quite believe he's gone.

We first met in 2008 when he and his colleagues were finalising 'Boomtown 2050', a seminal book of provocations about Perth's future. Richard and I became friends, meeting for lunch and talking about our childhoods in Sydney and the promise that Perth showed, loving it for its many days of sunshine and easy way of life, but knowing it could be more.

When they moved to Philadelphia, I visited he and his wife, Tatum. Since then, we have emailed about his cancer, living through COVID-19, and mused about the state of the world in that way of his which is astute, witty and warm.

In 2022, as they were contemplating a move back to Perth, I interviewed him about "enoughness", the notion that you know when you are enough, have had enough and achieved enough. He told me then that enoughness was his current state of mind, having "done all the big and small projects possible". I asked him what he would like his headstone to say, to which he replied, "He lived a big life." That he did!

At the end of the interview, he concluded with something that brings tears to my eyes, "There is an overwhelming beauty to life; death is not the end."

Steffen Lehmann

I am deeply saddened by the passing of Richard Weller after his courageous battle with cancer. A true visionary, Richard’s profound and lasting impact on landscape architecture and urban design is immeasurable. His work spanned intimate, small-scale interventions to ambitious megaregional planning, always rooted in a deep sense of place and a steadfast commitment to the public good. As a passionate educator and mentor, Richard shaped generations of landscape architects, first at the University of Western Australia in Perth and later at the University of Pennsylvania, where he co-founded the Ian L. McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology. RIP, my friend.

Helen Armstrong, QUT

Vale Richard Weller, an outstandingly creative landscape designer and a fine landscape scholar.

I have known Richard since he was a student where he was highly creative and energetic but unusual in his thirst for theory.   After university, as a young practitioner, he was a pioneer in the way he infused his early design work with cultural theory which he translated into aggressive and energetic graphics, whether it was the Design of an Anatomy Garden, Ingolstadt, Germany which he did in 1988 or the Park on Potsdamer Platz in 1992.    Richard considered his early work, which he called a ‘socio-ecological drama’, as a rite of passage.  Twenty years later his scholarship matured into richly layered and considered essays and books, while still maintaining his creative forms of representation; an added dimension to the originality of his ideas. 

His scholarship, while always soundly theoretically grounded, has been unusual in that, for him, it was inseparable from the act of design.  He consistently argued that theory and praxis should not be separated and his commitment to this was manifest in the cluster of design scholars that he established at the University of Western Australia.  Richard argued that the design competition was the ideal vehicle for infusing theory into practice where the intellectuality he brought to the design brief allowed for engagement of wide social, cultural and environmental issues.   Accordingly, he saw his students as colleagues as they worked together to produce competition entries that added to the wider cultural and environmental discourse, as well as making significant contributions to the contemporary role of landscape architecture.  He considered the intellectual role of the design competition as a significant contribution to innovative thought within the discipline.

Richard was passionate about the discipline of landscape architecture and saw its role as vitally important in today’s world.  In seeking to make the discipline more relevant to the 21st century, he was fearless in engaging with the challenging datascape concepts put forward by the Dutch architectural theorists, Winy Maas and Bart Lootsma; equally he was erudite in arguing for the role of landscape urbanism, green urbanism and critical pragmatism.  

Of great importance to the discipline was that he published his work.   Whether in academic journals, books or professional journals, he wrote prolifically.  This work was acknowledged by the Planning Institute of Australia with the prestigious President’s Award in 2007.

Although highly respected in Australia, his recognition within the discipline is more evident among international scholars and practitioners.   Citations about his work are included in numerous books and papers by well-known theorists such as Julia Czerniak to the late Denis Cosgrove, Charles Jencks, and Charles Waldheim, plus the Australians, Paul Carter, Catherin Bull, Julian Raxworthy, to name just a few who acknowledge his knowledgeable contribution to the discipline. 

In 2004, the Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts (ALVA) at the University of Western Australia was reviewed. The Panel remarked on how impressive Richard was in his stewardship of this school – the students and the staff.  His commitment was palpable but so was his generosity of spirit.  It was clear that although highly directed and energetic, he was egalitarian and collegiate in his approach to the staff and students.  At this time, there were only three Chairs of Landscape Architecture in Australian universities; the Dame Elizabeth Murdoch Chair at   Melbourne University, formerly held by Professor Catherin Bull, the Chair at the University of New South Wales held by Professor James Weirick and the Winthrop Chair at the University of Western Australia with Richard as its inaugural professor.  Richard was a shining beacon among the three chairs, particularly as he has managed to integrate the School with the Australian Urban Design Research Centre.  This enabled some important urban research to be undertaken by his PhD students.

Richard’s dedication to his students was renowned.  He treated students as colleagues and as a result they responded with enthusiasm and commitment to the on-going development of innovative theory and practice. The atmosphere in the school and studio was similar to the heady days of the Architecture Association in London.  A particular and lasting contribution that he made was his development of the subject, The Culture of Nature.   He continued to refine this subject over a number of years and the iteration and deepening of his intellectual engagement with this topic was evidence of a true scholar. 

Richard’s commitment to design as research resulted in a break-though for researchers in the creative arts in Australia, where he was successful in gaining large research grants which allowed for creative research into major urban issues using Western Australia as the case study area; a place that embodied many of the major concerns about future sustainable cities within the broader landscape.  In Australian universities, it was difficult to gain funding for design research so Richard’s success in being awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant on Re-Designing the Suburb: a Landscape Architectural Inquiry was remarkable. The fact that he converted this work into the book, Boomtown 2050, and the graphic way his research was presented illuminated and verified his commitment to design as research, thus pushing the frontier for others who sought to do creative research in the Australian academy

He was strategic in the way each of his research projects built on previous work.   His mode of inquiry, research funding and publications as books were exemplary in more conventional research terms, but to be able to mould this orthodoxy to suit his pursuit of the nexus between theory and design practice was a contribution to a number of creative disciplines, including architecture and communication arts.

Richard’s early practice experience in Berlin, five years after graduating, allowed him to engage in projects that were considered to be pioneering at the time, such as the new urbanist development of Kirchsteigfeld in Potsdam working with Rob Krier.   On returning to Australia in the mid 1990s, his working relationships with Vladimir Sitta and architects Ashton Raggatt and MacDougall (ARM) enabled him to bring together the two aspects of his design personality – Vlad’s profound European sensibility and ARM’s iconoclastic ‘Aussie’ larrikin freedom.  This was particularly evident in his exceptional design for the controversial Garden of Australian Dreams.   He continued to work with Ashton Raggatt and MacDougall, including the master-plan for Perth’s Foreshore which was completed in 2010.  As well, Richard’s practice with Vlad Sitta, Room 4.1.3 Pty Ltd, reflected ten years of challenging and intellectually rich designs. 

Scholars in Landscape Architecture encompass a broad field including historians like John Dixon-Hunt and Marc Treib, or design theorists such as James Corner or sense of place theorists such as Anne Whiston Spirn.  Richard’s scholarship has been more akin to architects theorists such as Winy Maas and Bart Lootsma; both in its experimentality, its intellectuality and its mode of representation.   

If one looks at Richard’s scholarly and design achievements, there has been an interesting trajectory; not only has he always been at the cutting edge of changes in cultural theory, he has also been evolving as a scholar from the early Berlin work to the articulation of Australian identity at the turn of the century to the recent chaotic urbanism of Western Australia. 

We have lost a truly remarkable person.

Carmen Williams, AILA

I was deeply saddened to hear that Richard lost his battle with cancer. Richard was not only a brilliant designer and artist, but also a cherished educator and mentor who shaped the careers of many. He was instrumental in setting up the Landscape Architecture program at UWA alongside Craig Burton, and he was highly regarded at the University of Pennsylvania.

I’ll never forget my first day at AILA almost nine years ago, when I was introduced to Richard, who was the Creative Director for the Not in My Backyard International Festival of Landscape Architecture. My first impression of him was: what a rockstar! He truly showed me how cool landscape architecture could be, and his passion has undoubtedly inspired countless others in the profession.

Even after his diagnosis and return to Perth, Richard remained generous with his time, giving a number of talks for AILA. He was awarded the National President’s Award in October last year, a well-deserved recognition of his incredible impact.

Richard will be sorely missed by many. My thoughts are with Tatum, his family, friends, colleagues, and all those whose lives he touched. A flame extinguished too soon.

UWA Publishing

UWA Publishing mourns the loss of Richard Weller who passed away on 15 May 2025 aged 61.

Richard Weller served as Winthrop Professor of Landscape Architecture at The University of Western Australia, co-developed the University’s Landscape Architecture course with Craig Burton and directed the Australian Urban Design Research Centre . Richard was the author of 9 books, two of which UWA Publishing had the honour to publish: the highly successful Boomtown 2050: Scenarios for a Rapidly Growing City (2009), which presents design solutions for Perth’s predicted population of 4.2 million in 2056, and Made in Australia: The Future of Australian Cities by Richard Weller and julian bolleter (2013) that offers optimistic and creative urban design solutions for the future of Australia’s major cities.

Kate Pickard, publisher of UWA Publishing, remembers Richard for “his passion for landscape architecture and his wildly creative thinking (not to mention leather pants and flowing hair). His passion is what drove the team at UWA Publishing to collaborate and create the stunning the Boomtown 2050 and Made in Australia.”

UWA Publishing is deeply saddened by this loss and we extend our heartfelt condolences to Richard’s family and friends. Vale Richard Weller (1963 to 2025).

Sara Padgett Kjaersgaard, UNSW

I am devastated to share the sad news that one of the most generous mentors, colleagues, teachers, and friends, Richard Weller, sadly lost his battle with cancer on May 14th.

He was an original, inspiring leader and advocate for landscape architecture, bringing people together from across the globe. He had a distinguished career. After graduating from the UNSW Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program in 1986, he went on to practice in Berlin, before joining the newly formed Landscape Architecture program at the The University of Western Australia (UWA) in 1993. His seminal 'Culture of Nature' course came to shape many of his students’ thinking and has been adopted by several programs since.

He was Director of the Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) (2010-13) before taking up the prestigious role of Martin and Margy Meyerson Chair of Urbanism and Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. Whilst abroad he continued to influence the design community in Australia and generously continued to support his PhD students, me included. He was the Creative Director of the 2016 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) International Festival of Landscape Architecture, which also marked, and celebrated 50 years of the profession here in Australia. That same year, he was instrumental in leading the Landscape Architecture Foundation's The New Landscape Declaration ‘call to action’ which corresponded with UN Habitat III. During his tenure at UPenn, he jointly established the Ian L. McHarg Centre for Urbanism and Ecology (with Frederick Steiner), and the LA+ journal (with wife and lifetime collaborator, Tatum Hands). His inspiring creative works in “The Atlas for the End of the World” and “Hotspot Cities” were published in National Geographic and Scientific American and exhibited at the Venice Biennale in 2021. Over the past decade, he held the position of Adjunct Professor in Landscape Architecture at the UWA School of Design, and here at the UNSW School of Built Environment.

In addition to his many well-known achievements, he remained unwavering in his support of peers and was notably generous in countless small ways.

Richard produced many speculative design works, however to stand at the centre of arguably his most important built work,  The Garden of Australian Dreams (GOAD) at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra (a collaboration between Room 4.1.3 — Richard’s design practice with Vladimir Sitta, and architects ARM) is to truly understand his brilliance, and his provocation of the cultural world in which design thinking and practice sits. His final works, only completed earlier this year, titled The Human Condition were spurred on by the spare plywood associated with building works at his home in Perth, his relentless pursuit of ‘keeping busy’, especially whilst undergoing treatment for cancer, and his desire to investigate and illustrate human and more than human conditions and entanglements of the world in which we live.

My colleague Catherine Evans reflected that Richard was one of our program’s most influential alumni—perhaps the most influential—and that “phenomenon” is an apt characterisation. Richard was simply, the rock-star of the landscape architecture world. Jillian Walliss' foreword in his 2024 publication An Art of Instrumentality (a must read if you have not) describes him as having a Bob Geldof presence – for his ‘shared ambition to mobilize at scale for greater social and ecological outcomes’. His ability to grapple with projects of significant scale and political will was nothing less than extraordinary.

Richard was an articulate, charismatic artist, a prolific communicator of image and word. Most recently I told him that the world needs his creativity in it – how blessed we are to have a legacy of significant magnitude that will continue to inspire us.

Thank you, Richard, for all you have given, and all that you have left behind. I feel lucky to have had my own 25+ year career shaped by you at numerous points.

To Tatum, his life partner and collaborator – our thoughts are with you and his family on this heartbreaking loss.

I know we will all continue to be inspired by him. His impact has endured — and will continue to do so.