Orchids bloomed in the north corridor in June 2020.
Judy Cunningham, the mastermind of NorthPark Center’s artistic landscape architecture for 43 years and a leader in her field, passed away suddenly last week at her beloved mountain home in Jemez Springs, N.M. She was 68.
Cunningham designed the landscapes of some 300 shopping centers across the U.S. and abroad during her celebrated career but was best known for her outstanding work at NorthPark.
Passionate about landscape and how people view and interact with it, Cunningham sought to create something “new and ingenious” each and every season at the shopping center.
Judy Cunningham
That invariably meant tracking down unusual floras that were virtually unknown in North Texas and extraordinary botanical specimens that stopped passersby in their tracks. She found them in test tubes that few had seen and in remote mountain nurseries, and she arranged these beauties in vivid tapestries of color and texture.
Snake plants dipped in colored feltCunningham considered the shopping center to be an “open theater,” and the orchids, bromeliads, and other plant materials as brushes of paint that she splashed in bold swaths and arresting patterns.
Among her eye-catching finds were snake plants dipped in colored felt from Israel, 15-foot aloe trees, and curvaceous sage green brain cactus rimmed in purple. Area nurseries often fielded demands for such plants after people discovered them at NorthPark.
Every fall, Cunningham amassed some 80,000 pounds of pumpkins and gourds and gleefully helped to place them around the center by hand.
Her intricate displays were planned at least a year in advance — sometimes longer — because the unique materials that she selected had to be grown in large quantities.
“Judy was a bright spirit and a dear friend, and we are shocked and saddened at her untimely loss,” said Nancy Nasher, president and owner of NorthPark Center. “She was a brilliant and original thinker, and her beautiful, inventive landscapes were instrumental to creating NorthPark’s elevated aesthetic. I can’t overstate how much we will miss her infectious energy, joie de vivre, and genius creativity.”
Nasher fondly recalled how much she enjoyed working closely with Cunningham and the landscape team.
“I remember us all planning in microscopic detail every plant in every pot for each season and scouting the center together in awe to admire our work and reflect upon the transformative ability of landscape to turn a space into something magical,” she reflected. “I take some comfort in knowing that her skill brought immeasurable joy, awe, fascination, inspiration, pleasure, and beauty to over a billion NorthPark visitors over the decades. That is a remarkable and impressive legacy.”
NorthPark manager Billy Hines said it was “a privilege” to work with Judy for more than 35 years.
“She was one of the most creative people I have ever known, and I learned so much from her,” Hines said.
Alice Goss, who recently retired as NorthPark’s longtime landscape manager, commented, “Judy had such a talent for creating incredible designs, always searching out new and unique plants that others might not consider. Her impact on NorthPark’s landscape will be enjoyed for years to come. Working with her was a joy and always a learning experience. She will be sorely missed.”
Nancy A. Nasher and Judy Cunningham
William “Billy” Roberts, who collaborated with Cunningham on NorthPark over the past two decades and who has stepped into her role as her chosen successor, noted, “Judy was above all a good friend and a mentor. Her award-winning work as the creative leader of NorthPark Center's signature landscapes has always been an inspiration."
“A mix of out-of-the-box thinking and a critical eye paired with a relentless attention to detail were key to her mastery of interior landscape architecture. Judy was always very close with her friends, joyful, and deeply committed to creativity and art. We already miss her eclectic personality — and her constant juggling from one pair of eyeglasses to the next.”
A self-professed “farm girl” from North Texas, Judy Ann Cunningham planned to be a veterinarian when she entered the University of North Texas in 1971. The following summer, however, a botany course at the University of Colorado at Boulder changed her mind.
“My grandmother was a botanist,” she said. “I thought that was a lot cleaner.”
Cunningham earned her degree in plant taxonomy from UNT in 1975 and began working in Dallas, where NorthPark owners Patsy and Ray Nasher spotted one of her designs in 1977 at Lord & Taylor, then an anchor of the mall.
They asked Cunningham to consult for the center, where she was tutored by original NorthPark landscape designer Richard Vignola of Lawrence Halprin and Associates. She succeeded Vignola as director of NorthPark landscape design in 1978.
Cunningham took aesthetic cues from the streamlined decor and terraced gardens at Patsy and Ray Nasher’s home in Preston Hollow. She shared Patsy’s love of landscape and later found a kindred spirit in Nancy Nasher, who succeeded her parents as the center’s premier arbiter of taste.
CenterPark Garden
“NorthPark has been the most gratifying job that I’ve done all over the world,” she once said. “A lot of that has to do with working with the Nashers for so many years. We’re all on the same page, and in a lot of ways I feel they’re like family. It truly is a phenomenal thing.”
She emphasized that NorthPark was about community, and it showed in her work.
In 1981, Cunningham co-founded landscape firm Mesa Design Group in Dallas and helped build it into a successful multinational company with offices in Europe and the Middle East. She left the firm in 2012, a decision prompted in part by injuries sustained when she was hit by a car in downtown Dallas.
Mesa Design Group won dozens of awards during her tenure, including the International Council of Shopping Center’s Merit Award for Renovation or Expansion of an Existing Project in 2007 and Grand Award for “Interiorscape” for NorthPark in 2008. The group was also included in the Texas Architect Design Award that NorthPark received in 2007.
In addition, her NorthPark work was featured in Architype Review, Landscape Architecture Magazine, and 21st Century Retail Centers.
Mesa Design Group praised her contributions to the company in a statement that read in part: “Those who were fortunate to have known Judy knew her to be creative, fun, friendly, quirky, and down to earth. Judy’s energy and passion still influence our office in many ways today. She will be greatly missed by those who knew her.”
Cunningham herself was characteristically humble about NorthPark’s exceptional landscaping.
“It’s not an ‘I’ project or a ‘me’ project — it’s a ‘we’ project,” she affirmed. “It’s a real process of everybody being involved because they love it. It’s a group effort.”
Miniature cacti in vibrant colors dot the center throughout the year.