Ted Robinson Sr.

Theodore G. Robinson, known as Ted Robinson Sr., was born in 1923 and developed most of his career in the American West. He studied landscape and planning as California suburbs, desert resorts and residential communities expanded rapidly. In 1954 he established an independent practice combining golf architecture, land planning, parks and subdivision design. Robinson understood early that new courses would often become central landscapes within larger developments. Holes had to be coordinated with housing, roads, retention basins, views and public space. Mesa Verde in Costa Mesa was an important example of golf integrated into a masterplan. Across Palm Springs and Palm Desert he designed or altered more than twenty-five facilities. His nickname, the “King of Waterscapes,” came from a spectacular use of water. Lakes, streams and waterfalls were not decoration alone; they organised drainage, property identity and playing decisions. Desert Springs, Indian Wells, Tustin Ranch, Tijeras Creek and resorts in Hawaii or Asia demonstrate the approach. Sahalee near Seattle reveals another side: a narrow course through dense forest, strong enough to host the PGA Championship. Robinson also worked in Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Mexico and Hawaii, learning to communicate with different cultures and promoters. His wife Bobbi managed the office for many years, and his son Ted Jr. joined in 1991, beginning nearly two decades of collaboration. Ted Robinson Sr. died from pancreatic cancer on 2 March 2008. A former ASGCA president, he left more than 160 projects. His architecture represents a period when course, hydraulic infrastructure, resort landscape and residential development became one integrated system. The forms may now appear highly manufactured, but they responded directly to the ambitions and constraints of the post-war American West.