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Keewaydin Park - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Keewaydin Park exemplifies the balancing act of serving both the needs of the elementary school and the broader neighborhood with establishing a first-of-its-kind bouldering experience for the client’s park system. This one-of-a-kind play experience leverages the park’s existing natural features, incorporates principles of sustainability, and seamlessly blends traditional, nature, and climbing play together in a compact footprint. Shade, native plants, and natural materials create an inviting park setting and define a range of attractive and comfortable places to play, rest, imagine, and create. Keewaydin is a small park with big possibilities, providing something for all ages and interests.
Sustaining Rondo: Autonomy Through Agro-Forestry - St. Paul, MN
The Sustaining Rondo project examines reparation and autonomy through the lens of agriculture, education, and community building for the purpose of healing a 60-year-old scar across Rondo. Following a history of racial injustice in the Rondo Neighborhood, this project seeks to hand ownership back to the community and allow residents to regain lost educational and financial capital. This is achieved through re-envisioning what Interstate 94 could be and how it could serve the people it has long exploited.
Pritzker Military Museum, Library, and Archives Center - Somers, WI
The project marks the initial 40-acre phase of a decade-long development project across 283 acres of farmland in Somers, Wisconsin. It effectively addresses the institution’s expansion needs and vision of a world-class museum campus, enhancing public understanding of military history through artistic, expressive, and functional design. It prioritizes ecological restoration, sustainability, water resilience, and community benefits. Inspired by the military values of discipline, it features a simple yet orderly site layout and symbolic material selection for a memorable visitor experience. Landscape architects led sustainability efforts and integrated artistic landforms seamlessly. The project’s success prompted the institution to relocate its entire operation to the campus upon completion, highlighting its environmental, cultural, and institutional impact.
Sauk Rapids “The Clearing” - Sauk Rapids, MN
Nestled along the Mississippi River and bordering downtown Sauk Rapids, this once-industrial waterfront has long been a hidden resource for the city. The design of this park aims to revitalize the underutilized and ecologically compromised riverfront, transforming it into a lively public gathering space and green oasis at the city’s core. Dubbed “The Clearing,” this project included shoreline restoration, improved access, and revitalized viewsheds, breathing new life into this vibrant civic space and enhancing the ecological and social fabric of downtown Sauk Rapids. This reimagined riverfront park serves as a shining example of economic revitalization and community pride.
Disperse and Decentralize - Fulton, IL
The lock and dam system on the Upper Mississippi River was originally designed for the singular purpose of navigation. As dams across the nation continue to exceed their expected lifespan, the future of these landscapes must be considered in parallel with future climate and social needs. This project therefore aims to challenge the singularity and assumed permanence of megainfrastructure through the diffusion of spatial, social, and ecological infrastructures.
Philando Castile Peace Garden - Falcon Heights, MN
The Philando Castile Peace Garden in Falcon Heights, MN, epitomizes a sanctuary of reflection, healing, and advocacy for justice dedicated to Philando Castile. In response to his heartbreaking murder, a coalition comprising of his family and community with the combined expertise of a landscape architect, architect and artist, transformed the scene of a tragedy into a bastion of peace. This collaboration yielded a garden enriched by art, communal gardening, and photo narratives, marking the location of Philando’s untimely death as a ground of communal unity, activism, and memory, embodying a commitment to societal change and healing.
Mirage - Cupertino, CA
Set within a small park facing Apple Park and the Apple Park Visitor Center, the curved walls composed of glass columns meander through the grid of olive trees like an aura. Mirage blends art, architecture, science and nature. Social and connective, it creates an unexpected gathering place. The practice of watching light fall through the columns is a form of meditation. Interacting with the sculpture creates connections to nature, deep time and the beyond. Mirage provides a moment of pause, inviting visitors to slow down, and tune into the immensity and preciousness of our planet.
Hopkins Heat Vulnerability Study - Hopkins, MN
Through a lens of place-based equity, this project exemplifies a community-driven planning approach that results in positive outcomes for the people we serve, exemplifying how landscape architects can directly aid vulnerable communities in the face of a changing climate. The Hopkins Heat Vulnerability Study explores how the City of Hopkins is affected by a warming planet and how it can adapt to extreme heat events. The project website provides an interactive summary of how heat impacts the city’s most vulnerable residents and includes action steps on how to keep those residents, and all community members, safe in extreme heat.
Minnesota Zoo Treetop Trail
The recently-completed Treetop Trail allows visitors to experience the Minnesota Zoological Gardens through a renewed elevated perspective. The Minnesota Zoo Treetop Trail embodies a profound commitment to environmental stewardship, guided by the overarching mission of “connecting people with nature.” Along 1.25 miles and four touchdowns (access points), the Trail guides visitors through many stories, site histories, animal exhibits, and existing and restored ecosystems, all atop remnants of the abandoned monorail infrastructure. The Trail promotes physical and mental well-being and uses a scaffolding approach to help visitors develop a personal relationship with nature and accelerate their dedication to activism.
Minnesota Medal of Honor Memorial - Saint Paul, MN
The Medal of Honor Memorial is intended to honor, memorialize, and thank Minnesota’s military personnel whose actions went above and beyond the call of duty in service to our nation. The memorial also serves to educate and inspire youth and future generations with the character values that our Medal of Honor recipients and veterans leave as their legacy. The memorial finally realizes the State Capitol Architect, Cass Gilbert’s vision for a prominent memorial at the main entrance to the Capitol Mall.
Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) Campus Plan
Over the next decade, MCAD aims to become the leading art and design college in the country and a model for radical accessibility. The Campus Plan provides a guiding vision and framework for the college’s spatial transformation, designed to be dynamic and adaptable to changing needs. A new network of pathways, plazas, small gathering spaces, and native sensory gardens support a variety of uses and opportunities for collaboration across MCAD that provide a spectrum of environments for learning, relaxation, creativity, and work. The network reimagines campus organization, moving away from a singular dominant axis towards a dynamic and accessible framework.
Shoreview Commons - Shoreview, MN
Shoreview Commons Park Plan and Implementation transformed an aging, underutilized park into a shared space for all community members to gather and enjoy. With a wide range of amenities for all ages, including a destination playground, garden with fountain and skating pond, skatepark, trails, and event space, it is now a draw in all seasons. It also showcases many sustainable features, including stormwater basins integrated into the playground, a water reuse system that irrigates with water from the fountain pond, and pollinator-friendly plantings in the large gardens. The park opened in two phases with rave reviews from residents.
Jurustic Park Relocation Master Plan - Marshfield, WI
The master plan originates from an 89-year-old scrap metal sculpture artist’s wish to donate his life’s work to the community. It aims to capture the magical, mythical, and whimsical essence of the ‘Jurustic World’ within the new city park location, while conserving urban forests, enhancing habitats, continuing the artistic legacy, and offering community benefits. Landscape architects have been instrumental in site selection and programming, creatively blending the artist’s inspiration with site potential and community interests.
Pine River & Norway Lake Dam Removal and Restoration
This project removes an existing dam and replaces it with rock riffles and enhanced riverbanks to improve public safety and river access, reduce flood risk, and reestablish aquatic organism connectivity. The team worked with the City of Pine River, MnDOT, State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), and regulatory agencies from feasibility studies starting in 2013 to project completion in 2022. The riffle pools and channels enhanced recreational opportunities for wading, fishing, and other waterbased fun. This work reconnected 134 lakes and 80 miles of river and stream corridors benefiting fish, mussels, and many game and non-game animal species.
National Pan-Hellenic (NPHC) Plaza - Ames, IA
The NPHC is an umbrella organization comprised of nine historically Black fraternities and sororities dedicated to celebrating and advocating for the African American community. The goal of this project was to create a space that represents the historic and cultural contributions of NPHC member organizations to Iowa State University and many other universities. This plaza, celebrating the ‘Divine 9’ (as the nine organizations are called), is the first of its kind in the Midwest. It has a special significance as a place of welcoming and inclusion on Iowa State University, a predominantly white campus.
Lake Superior Plaza - Duluth, MN
Lake Superior Plaza sits at a key intersection in Duluth, overlooking the lake and connecting downtown to the waterfront district. For years, it had fallen out of use and was no longer an inviting space. In 2020, a team of landscape architects embarked on a redesign initiative working with stakeholders to transform this outdoor space. Today, the Plaza has improved circulation, safety and accessibility, shade, and multiple places for visitors to enjoy. The revitalized Plaza is the perfect model of an inclusive public space - blending urban design with natural comforts and is a welcoming gateway into downtown Duluth.
Hennepin Avenue Downtown Reconstruction - Minneapolis, MN
The Hennepin Avenue reconstruction aimed to reactivate the downtown Minneapolis corridor from Washington Avenue to 12th St. Blending a multimodal past, the Hennepin Theatre District’s influence, and modern needs of businesses, residents, and visitors resulted in a corridor with dedicated space for pedestrians, cyclists, transit, and vehicles. The uniform vision of this renewed corridor contributed to a safer, activated, and dynamic pedestrian environment that simultaneously implemented sustainable and maintainable best practices. The transformed Hennepin Avenue, while complementing other downtown streetscapes, is renewed as a critical north-south artery in Minneapolis and precedent for future projects seeking to provide a complete street vision.
Deephaven - Deephaven, MN
Deephaven’s modern layout contrasts with its glaciated surroundings, seamlessly merging contemporary design with geological heritage. Water features echo the land’s natural formation, while native boulders mimic erosion, and bioswales promote sustainability. Social areas juxtapose architectural lines with the landscape’s natural contours, prioritizing habitat preservation and biodiversity. Architectural innovation integrates Deephaven into its environment, harmonizing cultivated and wild elements. Through meticulous design, Deephaven becomes a symbiotic extension of the land, embodying coexistence. The Landscape Architect’s vision manifests in a meticulously organized landscape, featuring flexible program and elegant transitions. Consistent materials and plants emphasize form, texture, and color, enhancing the overall aesthetic.
AON Center South Plaza - Chicago, IL
Aon Center’s South Plaza is the front door to the fourth-tallest building in Chicago’s skyline. This redesign project creates a formal entry and a casual front yard to enhance social opportunities for today’s workforce. The client embraced a vision of transforming what was a private garden into a more public park and neighborhood amenity. A ten-foot elevation change from street to plaza level—previously a vertical barrier—was replaced with a lightweight landform creating a seamless transition between public and private realms. Robust planting areas with native, pollinator-friendly vegetation account for four-season interest and the complexities of existing subsurface infrastructure
X.Space - Milwaukee, WI
The Ash Grove, previously located on Marquette University’s campus in Milwaukee, WI, served as a gathering place for students to study and enjoy the natural beauty of ash trees. However, due to the removal of these trees, there was a need to create a new space that better serves the university community. Working closely with Marquette representatives and stakeholders, we developed the X.SPACE through an iterative and inclusive process. This space, named to symbolize the convergence of Marquette’s community, serves as a hub for conversation, belonging, and innovation. It connects different parts of the campus and fosters collaboration and creativity through intentional design, enhancing the university’s sense of unity and expression.
Crane Lake Preserve - Minnetonka, MN
The landscape architect designed a refined park shelter and landscape along a regional trail in the city of Minnetonka. The modern shelter - offers a new destination in the heart of the community – and overlooks Crane Lake Preserve. A simple palette of burnished block, standing seam metal roofing, painted steel, and cedar achieve a minimalistic design. Staggered, cast in-place concrete and crushed granite provide a unique and permeable foreground to the structure. This low-budget project is drawing renewed attention to this lovely and previously hidden preserve in the heart of the community.
Excelsior Commons - Excelsior, MN
The landscape architect guided the transformation of Excelsior Commons Park, preserving its historical legacy while embracing modern sustainability. The park’s master plan, rooted in extensive community engagement, guided priority projects including a multi-use pavilion, concessions plaza, and ecological restoration area. By integrating innovative design principles, such as transparent structures and native plantings, the park now offers enhanced visitor experiences and equitable access to amenities. Through collaborative partnerships with the city and nonprofit conservancy, the landscape architects demonstrated their pivotal role in revitalizing cherished public spaces, ensuring Excelsior Commons Park remains a beloved destination for generations.
Lebanon Hills Boathouse - Eagan, MN
Dakota County sought to improve its watercraft rental operation at Lebanon Hills Regional Park and provide accessibility enhancements for equal access. The existing setup lacked safe working conditions for staff, accessibility for users, and efficiency of operations. The Landscape Architects worked with county staff to first understand the rental system’s needs and operational processes. They then developed plans for more efficient circulation, ADA accessibility ramps and a watercraft launch, a custom-designed Boathouse to safely store the watercraft fleet, a ramp linking the new boathouse and beach, seating, and an expanded sand blanket for launching operations.
Sustainable Planting Vision Plan - Plano, TX
Bank of America commissioned a predesign of their Plano, TX campus to study the irrigation and cost reduction potential of a phased sustainable planting renovation. The predesign process involved extensive client education about contemporary planting theory and resulted in a broadening of project priorities. This story is told through a series of diagrams and graphs that illustrate the importance of climate adaption thinking in planting design. The goal of the report was to succinctly communicate the author’s findings in a richly illustrated and shareable format. The predesign resulted in the financing of the first two phases of renovation.