Landscape architect Ron Herman is responsible for designing many of North America’s largest and most intricate private gardens. He has created more than four hundred full-scale garden designs in his thirty-five plus year career in landscape architecture. Currently he is engaged in the 25-acre Japanese-style village of California software billionaire Lawrence Ellison, as well as several large estates throughout the country.

The son of a Southern California nurseryman, Ron attended North Hollywood High School and worked with his father in developing gardens for many Hollywood personalities, including Steven Allen, Phil Silvers and Jayne Mansfield. Later, at the University of California at Berkeley, he studied under noted designers Garret Eckbo and Lawrence Halprin, founders of the philosophy of landscape design that came to be known as California Style. "It was an exciting time to be at Berkeley," says Ron. "I was inspired by the passions of public speakers, and the many new, emerging forms of expression in the arts, such as dance and film. I learned to look outside of gardens and into other art forms as a source of inspiration."

Upon earning a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley, he began pursuing projects as a design associate with Robert Herrick Carter in Los Angeles. Ron worked on such significant projects as the Century City Hotel, the Hunt Foods Headquarters and the Union Oil Headquarters. One year later, at age 22, he opened his own design office in Los Angeles. At age twenty-four, with a promising landscape design practice established, Ron decided to pursue graduate studies in Japan. "The three years of graduate work at the University of Kyoto during the 1960’s changed my direction completely. I had seen pictures of Japanese gardens and thought they were precious. Studying them firsthand opened me up to the dynamics of the Japanese form, the interplay between the formal and the informal." Ron realized the study of historical gardens would provide the foundation necessary to mature as a designer. The experience led to a lifelong study of Japanese design. His success at the University of Kyoto led to a teaching position as Visiting Lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley. Ron taught all areas of landscape architecture, including Japanese garden history, for twenty years, while working in his design practice. He left academia in 1988 to again concentrate on residential design. He has also travelled widely in Europe to study historic and current landscapes.

The Japanese approach to garden design deeply influenced Ron. His approach to design involves manipulating space and perspective to create a feeling of expansiveness. The garden unfolds as one moves through it. Through sequencing and layering, the landscape will appear to be larger than it actually is. "I shape it and manipulate it to create a tension between the formal and informal elements of the garden." Ron believes that two qualities, sequence and spatiality, set his work apart from others creating large-scale landscapes. "I don’t really have a signature style. I approach each job as a totally new concept, and try to fulfil the potential. However, in my work you will always see that I break down the garden into different areas, a hierarchy of spaces. You will see scenes unfold, as in a drama. When you look back through the garden, new complexities will show that weren’t apparent at first. I rarely reveal the whole garden at once." He has kept close ties to Japan, visiting frequently on several research grants and maintaining fluency in the language. Ron has authored numerous papers on Japanese garden design and co-authored A Guide to the Gardens of Kyoto, which is often noted as an authoritative text on Kyoto's historic landscapes.

Today Ron’s firm, with a staff of ten, is engaged in planning and implementing thirty-six gardens across the country, reflecting a total construction cost of more than $500 million. These include Washington D.C.’s National Gallery East Wing, Oracle Corporation's Northern California Campus and many private residences. In addition to the Ellison estate, Ron has worked on residential projects for Joe Montana, Neil Young and numerous other sports, entertainment and high-tech personalities. In the area of public landscapes, he completed the Oracle Corporation World Headquarters in Redwood City, CA, and has recently designed the East Wing garden at the National Gallery in Washington D.C. Although famed for his mastery of the Japanese form, the current projects employ a broad range of style and invention.

Ron’s work has been featured prominently in the national media, including The New York Times, House and Garden, Architectural Digest, Sunset Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, Le Point (France), The Sunday Telegraph (London), the Oprah Winfrey Show, (Millennium Mansions, aired 5/3/99, featuring Lawrence Ellison’s San Francisco residence) Elle Decor, Elle Decoration (France) German Architectural Digest, and in several books on gardens including New American Garden, (Watson-Guptill), Pocket Garden(Morrow) and New Classic Gardens (Quadrille).