Elden Beck - Visionary village planner

Elden Beck, a forward-thinking landscape architect and urban planner who influenced resort village design for more than 30 years, died on June 6, 2026, in Mill Valley, California. He was 94.

Born in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Beck received his bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1953 and then served in the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. He came to specialize in town planning and formed his own business in 1979.

Starting with his then-revolutionary pedestrian-friendly design for a purpose-built village at Whistler in the late 1970s, Beck became a prominent force in resort development. Other professional accomplishments included designs for the Vail master plan (1972–78), Whistler Olympic Athletes Village (2010), Mont Tremblant Village master plan (1991–2000), Les Arcs 1950 village design in the French Alps (2000–2007) and village and waterfront projects in New Zealand and Australia.

It was during family trips to Europe that Beck became fascinated with the planning and architecture of Alpine villages. In particular, he studied pedestrian-only communities such as Wengen, Switzerland.

In his car-free village planning, Beck prioritized maintaining sight lines to the mountains and access to biodiversity, as well as creating natural pedestrian-gathering spots, which he likened to eddies in a mountain stream.