It is that time of year again! April is World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM). Established by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), #WLAM2021 is a month-long international celebration of landscape architecture and designed public and private spaces.
This year’s theme was all about “Growing Together.” The following projects showcase all the ways in which communities grow together in the spaces landscape architects create.
1) Adventure Island at Settler’s Park – One of the first All-Inclusive Playground designs in Idaho - and a community favorite park in Meridian, Idaho
2) Owyhee High School - Growth is inevitable and is happening faster than ever in the Treasure Valley. We take great pride in getting to be a part of that development, especially when it helps a community grow together! Owyhee High School is the newest high school in the West Ada School District and will open in the fall of 2021. The Land Group is proud to be providing landscape architecture and civil engineering for this new campus. The main building includes classrooms, labs, a gymnasium, cafeteria, office area, and is surrounded by plazas, parking lots, and athletic fields. Owyhee High School will have an 1,800-student capacity which will help with the growing community.
3) Hope House Track & Field - Hope House began as a promise to create a safe and loving place for children in need. Today, that promise has grown to include housing for roughly 50 children, a school, chapel, and access to vocational training, health care, and mental health services. Bacon for Hope, a nonprofit organization founded by BACON restaurant, recently joined the effort to aid the Hope House kids’ physical and mental wellbeing through recreation – in the form of a new track and field. TLG provided land surveying, site design, civil engineering, and irrigation design for the project, designing the track to be both functional and efficient. Through every step, supporting Hope House’s unique needs for accessibility and inclusion was a top priority. The spaces and places we design are meant to create community and foster connection. The new track and field at Hope House will do exactly that.
4) Discovery Park - Located in one of Idaho’s fastest growing cities, Discovery Park is already having a great impact on the community of Meridian, Idaho. With views of the Boise foothills to the northeast, and the Owyhee range to the southwest, this park takes “discovering” nature and play to a new level. A climbing wall is detailed as a map of Idaho and a sand park mimics the natural reservoirs of the area. The play structures include informational graphics about the Idaho state bird, tree, and more. A stacked rock wall creates multiple areas for kids to climb, provides scenic views, and creates a natural grade for slides. Scope of work also included a zipline, splash pad, dog park, event lawn where food trucks could park along the perimeter, a natural amphitheater and stage area, and a nature area with demonstration gardens. Programming of the park was not so simple. With visitors that could vary throughout the day, programming had to essentially create 4 parks into 1, a community and regional park with various passive and active functions. Discovery Park achieves this by giving Idaho families a place to discover, play, and grow together.
5 & 6) The Clara Apartments - The Clara Apartments are helping our growing community grow together in so many ways – including these great built in garden boxes 😉 In this fast-pace housing market that has emerged in the Treasure Valley, housing developments like The Clara are more important than ever, offering outdoor amenities and a site layout that encourages community - and getting to know your neighbors!
7) Washington Elementary School - Here is a look as some growing together in progress for schools & education in Boise. Washington Elementary School first opened its doors in 1900 and consisted of a four-room brick building on half of Block 10 in the Historic North End of Boise. By 1908, Washington Elementary purchased the rest of the block and began making additions to the school, which is in full force again today. Currently, the school and site are undergoing a complete remodel. This gives you a unique look at some of the work and coordination with civil engineers that our profession does – before the landscape and site improvements are complete!
8 & 9) Boise State University Transit Center - During this #WLAM2021 we have highlighted some elementary and high school education projects, but let’s take a look at some of our collegiate work and how it is helping the community with growing together. Just like Boise, Boise State University has seen a lot of growth and has continued to improve the campus for students, faculty, and the community. Although TLG has worked with BSU on multiple projects, we wanted to highlight our work on the BSU Transit Center. The Transit Center was designed to accommodate not only buses and cars, but major pedestrian and bicycle traffic. With our civil engineers and landscape architects working together, we were able to create a functional and cohesive multi-transportation circulation design. Including a three-bus bay, “kiss-n-go” bay for vehicles, community gathering plaza, pedestrian circulation corridor, bus shelter area, site furnishings, and landscaping. Our collaborative work with Boise State and other local agencies led to a high quality and thoughtful design that will hopefully be enjoyed by all for years to come!
10) Mountain View Elementary School - Even though the school year looked a lot different last year, work has not slowed down on the improvements to our schools in the valley. Mountain View Elementary School has recently been rebuilt with the help of TLG’s multidisciplinary team. With this new school, students of Mountain View Elementary will be growing together on a new playground that offers a diverse range of activities to choose from.
11) Fort Missoula Regional Park - Happy 199th Birthday to the Father of Landscape Architecture: Frederick Law Olmsted! Celebrating #WLAM2021 would not be complete without celebrating Olmsted and what he has done for our profession and growing communities. As you may know, he designed Central Park in New York City. Talk about growing together, Central Park is the most visited urban park in the United States with an estimated 42 million visitors annually. The inspiration for growing cities to have great parks and recreational facilities has continued greatly over the years. One of TLG’s favorite examples was led by our own passionate landscape architect, David Koga. Fort Missoula Regional Park in Missoula Montana, pictured here, is 156-acre park that took 5 years to design and implement. Tourism in Missoula has increased 9% since the park opened which coincided with several sports tournaments being hosted at the park. It also increased overall park space in Missoula by 25%. This impactful project has many noteworthy impacts to the profession, including advancing the profession by featuring a Landscape Architect as the lead consultant, promoting responsible urban redevelopment in the Rocky Mountain states, and addressing legacy contamination and environmental degradation through gravel pit reclamation. It is a fantastic example of growing together and creating community through #landscapearchitecture
12) Idaho Youth Ranch - In today’s world, growing together is more important than ever. #WLAM2021 and @nationalasla have brought this to the forefront, as we come together and showcase how landscape architects have a hand in shaping our communities. Here is an example: Since 1953, Idaho Youth Ranch has been a beacon of hope for struggling kids and families in Idaho. Their mission is to “provide accessible programs and services that nurture hope, healing, and resilience for Idaho’s Youth.” That is 68 years of changing lives during one of the most vulnerable stages of life, thus providing a significant amount of growing our community together. Today, Idaho Youth Ranch is expanding its facilities to help even more of Idaho’s youth with the new Residential Center for Healing and Resilience in Canyon County. The Land Group has led a collaborative effort to design a site master plan for the new and diverse 258-acre campus. TLG’s efforts continue today as site development and facility construction are getting underway, helping Idaho Youth Ranch to #achievevision #createcommunity and #enrichoutcomes
