Dr Jim Sinatra

Jim has received numerous accolades and honours including a fellowship in the Australian Institute of Landscape Architecture and a National Future Leaders Scholarship, which has been dubbed the Jim Sinatra Leadership award. He recently became Patron of the Hamilton Botanic Gardena in the Western District of Victoria,  SinatraMurphy’s work is widely celebrated and respected for its artful approach to place making and the provision of meaningful public spaces. This practice continues to maintain strong links with indigenous and is presently working with multicultural groups. In 1991, he started his current landscape architectural and art practice with Phin Murphy. Jim initiated design studios throughout rural and remote Australia as part of the landscape architecture program, which grew to become the RMIT OutReach Australia program. Through this program, he provided invaluable opportunities for Australian and international students and RMIT staff to participate in projects that were focused on bringing real and meaningful change to communities in need. Jim’s books and publications co-authored with Phin Murphy: have made leading intellectual contributions that have shaped the discipline of landscape architecture. These publications celebrate their commitment to working with remote indigenous communities and other diverse, often marginalised, populations in understanding and shaping their landscape environments. In Australia, he was instrumental in taking the profession from its budding stages to the forefront of industry. In the early 1980s Mr Sinatra led the newly established undergraduate degree in Landscape Architecture at RMIT. He led and mentored this program for 15 years before retiring in 1998 with an emeritus professorship. His extensive experience in commercial, institutional, community development, municipal and residential landscape projects and public art projects, has seen him participate as a lecturer, critic, juror and reviewer in the US, Canada, Japan, Holland, Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan and East Timor. Jim Sinatra has made an outstanding contribution in the field of landscape architecture, the impact of which is felt from deep within rural Australia to many countries around the world. Jim lives with his wife Curtis in Trentham, Victoria overlooking its parklands.