Along with her husband and business partner, Arthur Berger, she completed 186 designs for private residences, college campuses, corporate headquarters, and resorts throughout the South.

Born Marie Monica Harbeck in Seattle, Washington, she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture in 1932 from Oregon State University. Following graduation, Harbeck spent two years working with architect Gardner T. Dailey before joining the office of Thomas Dolliver Church in San Francisco. While there, she completed the design of the L.D. Owen residence in Sausalito.

Berger exhibited at the Architectural League of New York prior to World War II and contributed her experiments with fabric design to the war effort by teaching camouflage techniques at Camp Belvoir, Virginia. While in Virginia, Harbeck met Dallas landscape architect, Arthur Berger, who became business partner with in 1945 and married the following year. The two went on to lecture extensively on landscape architecture and complete 186 designs for private residences, college campuses, corporate headquarters, and resorts throughout the South and in Jamaica, much of which embraced a modernist approach.

She died after suffering a stroke in 1963. At the time of her death, she endowed scholarships in Landscape Architecture and Horticulture at the University of Oregon, Oregon State University, and Trinity University in San Antonio, continuing her lifelong dedication to the field.

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