Iconic modern landscape architect Garrett Eckbo described Thomas Dolliver Church as "the last great traditional designer and the first great modern designer." Church was instrumental in pushing landscape architecture into the modern movement. His first gig was a terraced garden for his mother, a project he completed at age 12.

Educated at University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a B.A. in landscape architecture in 1922, and later at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Church was trained in the neoclassical Beaux-Arts tradition, which was very popular in Europe and the U.S. at the time. After graduate school, he took a trip to Spain and Italy on a traveling fellowship. He returned to his native California in 1929 and set up shop. His designs at that point were fairly traditional in style; the principles behind them emphasized the functions of outdoor living and working with the natural landscape. In California this meant he was an early xeriscaper, as he utilized drought-tolerant native plants. He often worked around mature existing trees, which he knew provided important shade and shelter from the wind.

In 1937 Church returned to Europe, this time to study modern art and the works of Le Corbusier and Alvar Aalto. He learned new ways of looking at design, such as cubism and collage, which didn't rely on the Beaux-Arts strong central axis. Church fearlessly pushed into the modern movement and was able to incorporate principles from both styles, including an emphasis on orientation and views, the placement of the house, minimal maintenance and using mature trees for function and sculpture. He designed many residential gardens that married form and function, as well as large projects such as the landscape for the General Motors Technical Center. No matter the style or scale, Church put the needs of his clients first, and then let them and the natural landscape guide his designs.

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