BY KATARINA KATSMA, ASLA
Sandra Clinton?s landscapes don?t stand out. They belong.
FROM THE MAY 2017 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE. 
Sandra Clinton, FASLA. Credit: Bob Devlin.
?I?m a plant scientist first,? says Sandra Clinton, FASLA. She is quick to clarify it?s not the only thing that defines her work. ?I?m an aesthetic designer. I design for what I think works together and what I think will survive.?
It?s the literal combination of landscape and architecture that Clinton, the president of Clinton & Associates in Hyattsville, Maryland, says defined her interests early on. ?My entire childhood was spent watching my mother garden this incredibly intense garden.? Her mother, she says, was in an unspoken annual competition with the next-door neighbor for best landscape. While her mother focused on plants, her neighbor?who was an engineer?favored structures and pavement, and by the time Clinton reached the age of seven he would let her help with construction. ?To me, you have to have the structure work and you have to have the plants work. My job is to make them work in proportion and combination and in concert with each other.? Clinton notes that there are hints of inspiration from previous mentors throughout her work; people in the past have mentioned seeing echoes of Roberto Burle Marx in some designs. Her plant sciences degree at the University of Delaware led her to the educator and landscape architect Conrad Hamerman, from whom she learned about the profe...