Thomas Church was one of the leading landscape designers of the 1950s, together with Garrett Eckbo. Thomas Church introduced Northern California with the modern movement while Garrett Eckbo was one of the leading landscape designers in Southern California. Thomas Church grew up in California, and after years of education, travel, and teaching, he opened his own firm in San Francisco. A prime example of his unique awe-inspiring mid century modern landscape design talent is the Donnell Garden in Sonoma. This classic icon of mid century modern landscape design has an irresistible free-form kidney style in the typical modernist manner of the 1950s.