Garrett Eckbo, FASLA, senior design principal of Eckbo, Dean, Austin and Williams, died May 15, following a stroke, in Oakland. He was 89.

Born in 1910 in Cooperstown, N.Y., and raised in Alameda, Calif., Eckbo became one of the leading practitioners of the California style of landscape architecture. His work, described by The New York Times as "the horticultural equivalent of Charles and Ray Eames," included over 1,000 designs for clients ranging from California's Central Valley migrant workers to Gary Cooper's residence in Beverly Hills. He found project size was not important: what mattered was the quality of the work and he once said that an opportunity to develop even a small-plat backyard was a significant step forward.

Recognized as a professional peer of Thomas Church and Dan Kiley, Eckbo began studying landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1933. After receiving his Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard (1938), Eckbo worked through the Depression for the Farm Security Administration, a federal bureau established to cope with agricultural crisis in the United States. In 1939 he formed the landscape architectural practice of Eckbo & Williams with his brother-in-law Edward Williams; in 1946 the partnership was expanded to Eckbo, Dean, Austin & Williams. In 1978, on Eckbo's retirement from the firm, the name was changed to EDAW, Inc.