At an early age Balmori learned to sing, dance, play piano, and her parents encouraged her to explore a wide range of mediums.
Balmori continued her education at the University of California, Los Angeles, earning her PhD in urban history.
Balmori accepted a teaching position at the State University of New York at Oswego and held undergraduate seminars in Landscape History at Yale School of Architecture.
[3] She continued to work as a partner at CPA before leaving in 1990 to start her own firm, Balmori Associates.
Out of 36 submissions from 9 countries, Balmori Associates (New York) with StudioMDA, Knippers Helbig Inc., David Skelly, CITA, Bluegreen, John A. Martin & Associates, and David Langdon, was selected as one of five finalists in the ARC International Wildlife Crossing Infrastructure Design Competition,[4] a competition sponsored by ARC Solutions, which challenged competitors to propose design concepts for a wildlife crossing over US Interstate 70 (I-70), near Denver, Colorado.
[6] In 2006, Balmori was appointed a Senior Fellow in Garden and Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC.
She served as a Committee Member for the Comprehensive Design Landscape Plan for the White House in 1999.
Her design style is recognized by the way it creates a fluid interface between landscape and structure in the development of urban public spaces.