Diana Balmori founded the design firm Balmori Associates, Inc. in 1990 and currently holds the position of Design Principal. She also holds an appointment at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and was the partner for landscape at Cesar Pelli and Associates from 1984 to 1990. Balmori did her undergraduate work in architecture at the University of Tucuman in Argentina, received her Ph.D in Urban history with highest honors from the University of California, Los Angeles and studied landscape design at Radcliffe College.

Balmori Associates was started primarily as a design firm with significant background and expertise in the design of landscapes. The firm's primary goal has been to combine artistic design with ecological principles. Balmori Associates has since then been able to adopt this design strategy to almost all their projects from the Prairie Waterway in Farmington, Minnesota to the landscape for 20 River Terrace in New York - the nation's first "Green" apartment building. Since founding the firm in 1990, Balmori Associates' work has been recognized in many publications and museum exhibits and has received numerous awards.