Borkenhagen was an interior designer resident in Australia and active in in the 1960s. Sent to Sydney by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill to consult on the Qantas/Wentworth Hotel, she had established a Sydney practice by 1965. She designed the Summit Restaurant, Australia Square. She returned to California in 1980 opening her own interior design firm and later joined a company called Clement Chen and Associates, San Francisco.