Agency Landscape Planning

We are thrilled to be leading the design of this work in Chattanooga in service of an incredible city leadership team and a community process last summer! Stay tuned for updates, including an expanded expert team, as we advance design! With gratitude to Matt Whittaker, Kymberly Ware Jiaqi Wang Jingzhi Fan Yiyang Li Madison Sanders Cole Thornton And loads of thanks to Chris Landau and Benjamin Summay https://lnkd.in/ekM--bDi

Please join us in Akron or on the City of Akron, Ohio - Mayor's Office livestream, linked below! https://bit.ly/4ftDVF8

We are thrilled to share about Agency’s four summer interns! To read their full bios, check out the link below. All the way from Australia, Aanchal Chopra is an urban planning intern and Master’s of Urban Planning student at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Boston-based Graham Moitoso is an urban planning intern and a recent honors graduate of Northeastern University's architecture program. Originally from Colorado, Hannah Hardenbergh is a landscape design intern and third-year landscape architecture student at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. Georgia-native KG Upchurch is a landscape design intern and a fourth-year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture student at The University of Georgia.

Following years of community engagement and design iteration, Burlington’s Great Streets Main Street Project has broken ground! In collaboration with longtime partners the City of Burlington, Vermont and VHB, our team has reimagined the historic streetscape as an urban entryway that is accessible, multi-modal, pedestrian friendly, and rooted in the community and cultural of this lakefront city. In February 2024, the City began construction on the subsurface and utility portion of the project - including the realignment of a 150-year-old “ravine sewer.” Given the age of the system and its former use as a city dumping ground, the team is expected to unearth centuries-old traces of life buried beneath layers of asphalt. This complex and riveting process is expected to take up to one year before the streetscape and beautification elements can be installed in early 2025. Follow along to see how this historic streetscape evolves into an enduring public amenity for the people of Burlington! Check out the link below to learn more.

Join us tomorrow, July 9, 5-7pm at the Providence Brewing Company as we share our work on the 195 District Park Pavilion! We’ll be joining The ACE Mentor Program Rhode Island for their “What’s On Tap” Speaker Series. Agency’s Leigh Miller will be representing landscape, along with 195 District (owner), Utile (planning), Fuss & O'Neill (civil engineering), The Guild (operator), and moderator Cliff Wood. The 195 District Park Pavilion is a proposed approximately 3,500-SF amenity featuring year-round dining, public bathrooms, and support space for park operations. The project will also include infrastructure upgrades to the park (e.g., WIFI service, grading and drainage improvements, and electrical upgrades). The Pavilion is intended to activate the park year-round, serve as an amenity for park users and the surrounding community, and support the 195 District’s economic development goals. Architecture Research Office (ARO) is the lead/architect firm. Learn more and RSVP to tomorrow’s event, below!

Agency’s Susannah Ross and Xi Yang are in Montreal this week to celebrate the life and work of the amazing Claude Cormier, icon of landscape architecture and a good friend of Gina Ford’s. This morning, The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s Pioneers of Landscape Design video oral history with Claude Cormier was unveiled. “The 115-minute-long Cormier oral history is parsed into 28 two- to five-minute clips and organized under the themes of “biography,” “design,” and “projects.” This is the most extensive oral history completed by the Foundation to date. Throughout the oral history Claude is insightful, funny, spirited, and authoritative. Numerous of his great design achievements, both temporary and permanent, are featured and illustrate the depth and scope of his design genius.” - TCLF Agency was a lead donor to the oral history that The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) was able to capture shortly before Claude’s sad passing. Join us in watching the Cormier oral history and celebrating the life of the remarkable Claude Cormier, by clicking the link below. Check out Gina’s personal reflections on Claude, also at the link below. CCxA

Big news from Wilmington, North Carolina! We are working with this charming coastal city (City of Wilmington, NC) to craft an exciting new plan for greater Downtown! From its colonial port roots and challenging reconstruction era coup to its role as a film and beach hotspot, we're honoring the city's rich history while shaping an inclusive future. Our amazing partners include James Lima Planning Development &Access, Bolton & Menk, Inc., Neighboring Concepts, and Alta Planning Design to address growth, celebrate community voices, and ensure inclusion is centered in future investments. Join us in this journey to create a vibrant, inclusive Wilmington. #WilmingtonNC To learn more about the planning process and share your vision for Downtown Wilmington, come to the next Open House on Wednesday, June 26! For details, check out the link below.

Out of more than 250 total entries, Agency has been shortlisted for two 2024 World Landscape Architecture awards. Built – Large Landscape Design The Bay: “One Park for All” in Sarasota | Agency Landscape Planning and our team: Kimley-Horn, Sweet Sparkman, Moffatt & Nichol, Sasaki, Edgewater Resources, LLC, HLB Lighting Design, Engineering Matrix, HR&A Advisors, Zaragunda Inc, Studio Ummo, Cummins Cederberg - Coastal & Marine Engineering, and MONSTRUM. To learn more about the project, check out the link below. The Cultural Landscape Foundation – Cultural Landscape Award Re-Investing in a Legacy Landscape: The Franklin Park Action Plan | Reed Hilderbrand LLC Landscape Architecture with Agency Landscape Planning and MASS Design Group. For more information, check out the link below. We're crossing our fingers for wins!

The New York State Canal System is over 500 miles long and runs through major cities, small towns, and rural landscapes. Agency is leading a team to refresh the Canal Recreationway Plan that will help the New York Power Authority, the New York State Canal Corporation, and the Canal Recreationway Commission keep the system resilient and relevant for years to come. At the heart of the team’s “many canals, one system” approach is a celebration of the various social, cultural, environmental, and economic benefits the canals offer to New Yorkers nearby and visitors from around the world. After a series of focus groups and site visits, the project team recently submitted a draft existing conditions report, and looks forward to diving into community engagement this summer. If you live or work in a canal community, keep an eye out for upcoming events, and we hope to see you canalside soon! Check out the link below for more info.

Agency is in Jacksonville, FL this week celebrating the 60% design milestone for the Shipyards West Park project. As part of this work, the team hosted a public open house to gather community feedback and confirm the design is aligned with the community's needs. The community shared tangible thoughts about how the park will be used, such as “What we love about this is that there are certain places where you can interact with the river, put in a kayak or rent a boat to go around. There are places that you can hike through, places for children.” They also observed a sense of belonging to the design: "There’s a lot of nuance in the design of the park as well, and (it evokes) the shipyards." The design team, which includes partners WXY architecture urban design, The Haskell Company, Moffatt & Nichol, HLB Lighting Design, and ADG | Acuity Design Group, aims to move forward with final design over the coming months with hopes of being in bidding and construction next year. Learn more about the project at the link below. With gratitude to our friends at Omnes Studio for the wonderful support visualizing the project!