Cleo Baldon

Who is Cleo Baldon?

Cleo Baldon is an American architect and landscape architect based in Los Angeles, where she has contributed to many well known structures, especially pools. She was born in Leavenworth, Washington. She worked as the design director of Galper Baldon Associates, headquartered in Venice, California. Baldon oversaw virtually all the projects for Galper Baldon Associates, with the exception of landscape plantings. In 1985, Baldon told the Los Angeles Times that ""I don't understand plants."

Baldon was born in Leavenworth, Washington, but her family lived in the small community of Peshastin, Washington. She moved to California, where she attended and graduated from Woodbury University.

Baldon, who has designed over 3,000 swimming pools in Southern California, holds a design patent for the contour spa with ergonomic underwater seating. She has been credited with the development of the lap pool, which she claims to have introduced to California in 1970.

Baldon is married to novelist, screenwriter and film director Ib Melchior, with whom she co-authored of the non-fiction books, Reflections on the Pool: California Designs for Swimming and Steps & Stairways.