Clare Cooper Marcus, professor emerita of architecture and landscape architecture & environmental planning at the University of California, Berkeley, passed away on January 18. She was 91 years old.
Born in London, England, Professor Marcus earned her bachelor’s degree in historical geography from the University of London in 1955. The following year, she traveled to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship to earn her master’s degree in urban geography from the University of Nebraska. Upon returning to England, Professor Marcus held positions with the University of Sheffield and the Ministry of Housing. She ultimately returned to the United States, first working in New York City before crossing the country to earn a second master’s degree in city planning from UC Berkeley in 1965.
After a stint conducting research with the Institute for Urban & Regional Development, Professor Marcus joined UC Berkeley’s landscape architecture faculty in 1969 and then the architecture faculty in 1971. She taught at the university for 25 years, retiring in 1994 as a professor emerita.
While teaching at UC Berkeley, Professor Marcus’s scholarship centered on affordable housing, public open spaces, and environments for children. In retirement, her focus shifted to the provision of therapeutic landscapes in healthcare. She published numerous articles and books throughout her lifetime, including House as a Mirror of Self: Exploring the Deeper Meaning of Home (Conari Press, 1995) and Housing as if People Mattered: Site Design Guidelines for the Planning of Medium-Density Family Housing (University of California Press, 1986).
Professor Marcus was also the author of two memoirs: Iona Dreaming: The Healing Power of Place (Nicolas-Hays, 2010), which reflects upon a six-month solitary retreat to a remote island in Scotland, and the forthcoming Groundbreaking: My Unmapped Path as an Academic, Mother, and Gardener (New Village Press, 2026).