Pioneer Information
Born in England, Shepheard attended the Birkenhead School and graduated from the Liverpool School of Architecture in 1936. He moved to London in 1937 and worked for the architecture firm Mitchell & Bridgwater. Serving as an engineer during World War II, Shepheard began assisting with the development of the Greater London Plan in 1943. He also worked on early prototypes for new towns at the Ministry of Town and Country Planning. After a brief stint with the Stevenage Development Corporation in 1947, Shepheard partnered with his first employer, Derek Bridgwater, in 1948, forming Bridgwater & Shepheard (later Bridgwater, Shepheard & Epstein, with the addition of Gabriel Epstein). Upon Bridgwater’s retirement in 1962 and the addition of Peter Hunter, the firm became Shepheard, Epstein and Hunter. The firm did work for Lancaster University, the Festival of Britain, the London Zoo, and Oxford University, with Shepheard staying on as principal partner until 1989. Shepheard’s other projects include Bessborough Gardens in London and consulting for Morris Arboretum and Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania. Shepheard began teaching landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1957, serving as dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts in the 1970s and retiring in 1994. As dean, he developed the campus’ 1977 Landscape Development Plan and created an interdisciplinary undergraduate environmental design program. Shepheard served as president of the Landscape Institute, the Architectural Association of London, the Royal Institute of British Architects, and the Landscape Institute. He was an advisor to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and was a member of the Town Planning Institute. He published the books Modern Gardens in 1953 and Gardens in 1969. Shepheard became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1972, was knighted in 1980, and received the Landscape Institute’s Gold Medal in 2000. He died at the age of 88 and is buried at Bunhill Fields in London.
