Claude Cormier Biography: MDES - The Game Changer in My Life and Practice [7 of 8]

At 32, having worked for seven years in a landscape architecture practice, Cormier wanted to go to the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He convinced Phyllis Lambert to pay for his tuition in exchange for doing a plan for CCA’s landscape maintenance. It “was the game changer in my whole life and practice.” At Harvard, Cormier opted to focus on history and theory rather than studio. Mentors included professors Mirka Benes and John Stilgoe. He embraced the values of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., as well as his studio professor, landscape architect Martha Schwartz, who he called “my hero.” Though very different, Olmsted and Schwartz, he said, create designed landscapes from scratch. Claude saw the two as his spiritual parents; Olmsted created healthy environments with nature in the city while Schwartz used artificial elements in her projects.