News

November 1, 2013 - Construction began Wednesday on the Brookfield Place Calgary east tower, which will be Western Canada’s tallest building on completion. The architects designing the towers are Fender Katsalidis Arney with Dialog.

Encompassing a full city block, Brookfield Place Calgary is the largest private sector construction project in the city’s history. 
 
For the first phase of construction, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol designed a half-acre public space. Multiple public plazas, high-quality streetscapes, and an indoor "winter garden" will provide space for social activities, public art, and cultural events to activate the core of downtown. Shannon Nichol is the lead landscape designer.

Read More

October 25, 2013 - Yesterday was the opening of Mercer Court Apartments, the University of Washington’s newest residence halls. Gustafson Guthrie Nichol’s design for the 4.5-acre site was led by Founding Partner Jennifer Guthrie and Senior Associate Tess Schiavone.
 
The residence halls sit within a 1-acre working farm, much of which is above the parking garage. The farm includes a series of raised beds and terraces that allow for a variety of produce from fruit trees, berries, rotating vegetable crops and herbs. The farm is primarily organized and operated by student volunteers, and the University of Washington will purchase farm produce to use in their cafes and dining halls.
 
“For a student living in a nine-story building to be able to pick rosemary or carrots in their backyard is a really unique experience,” said Jessica Rashid, Resident Director of Mercer Court.
 
The landscape design also includes a 20,000-sf plaza, seating areas, native and adaptive planting, and a pilot project for the Burke Gilman Trail. Additional sustainable aspects of the project are highlighted in The Daily.

Read More

October 23, 2013 - Seattle-based design firms Bohlin Cywinski Jackson architects and Gustafson Guthrie Nichol landscape architects were honored during the opening of the Nu Skin Innovation Center in Provo, Utah today. Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. invested more than $100 million in the new corporate facilities to support growth. The company develops luxury anti-aging products that are distributed worldwide.
 
GGN’s design included a recharged vision for of Provo’s main street that has become a catalyst for future downtown street design within Provo.Led by Founding Principal Jennifer Guthrie and Principal Bernie Alonzo, GGN’s landscape design also helps identify the Nu Skin campus within historic downtown Provo.
 
”The client challenged the design team to develop a place that would welcome, inspire, and enrich its visitors, distributors, and employees,” said Jennifer Guthrie. “The spaces were designed to be gracious, well-crafted, and dynamic - providing a strong foundation for the innovative thinking and creating that happens at Nu Skin.”

Read More

October 23, 2013 - Gustafson Guthrie Nichol's newest East Coast project is a public park and pavilion within a historic hospital campus in Washington, DC. The landscape design for St. Elizabeth’s East Gateway respects the site’s majestic trees and historic legacy while integrating a new pavilion, park amenities, and a sustainability agenda. Rodrigo Abela, principal in charge of GGN’s DC office, led the landscape design along with Rebecca Fuchs, design associate.
 
The opening ceremony took place at the food and market pavilion. The pavilion will serve both local residents and thousands of new federal workers moving into the area, helping to revitalize one of DC's poorest neighborhoods. On top of the pavilion, a 21,000-sf, vegetated green roof designed by GGN will be available for concerts, festivals, and other large gatherings.
 
The Washington Business Journal provides additional background information about this important project.

Read More

June 22, 2013 - The conference Thinking the Contemporary Landscape - Positions and Oppositions in Herrenhausen Palace, Hanover, Germany, called for “a critical debate about the contemporary intelligence of landscape architecture. For three days, outstanding thinkers and practitioners shared their thoughts and convictions in lectures and discussions." Kathryn Gustafson delivered a keynote address on the opening evening.  

Along with Kathryn Gustafson, "twenty-five prestigious speakers and respondents from all around the world . . . as well as a wide audience of over 200 specialists and students of landscape architecture discussed the scientific and emotive qualities of a landscape, [and] its characteristics as a mirror of society and its cultural perception."

Learn more.

Read More

June 13, 2013 - Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) is pleased to announce its selection as a winner of the Environmental Design Research Association’s 15th Annual Great Places Award for Place Planning with Unified Ground: National Mall Competition, Union Square. 
 
Seven exemplary projects in architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and urban design were named winners of the 2013 Great Places Awards, and honored during the 44th annual conference of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA).
 
“GGN’s vision for Union Square responds to more than just the physical contextual attributes but more importantly to the historic and political context for us as individuals as well as collectively for our nation” says juror, Gayle Epp, Partner, EJP Consulting, “This place has national significance.”
 
The National Mall is the country’s most visited park and attracts more than 25 million visitors annually. Union Square, located at the base of the Capitol, is the site of major historic events from presidential inaugurations to public gatherings and demonstrations.

Read More

June 10, 2013 - GGN is pleased to announce the promotion of David Malda to Senior Associate.

Read More

June 4, 2013 - Today, the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce announced the opening of the "University of Washington's newest medical facility — known as UW Medicine Phase 3.1 . . . A public plaza connects the new building with the first two phases of the UW's South Lake Union campus. Gustafson Guthrie Nichol was the landscape architect." 

A faceted building façade by architect Perkins + Will serves to bounce light into the meandering plaza below, where water features further reflect light to create a feeling of immersion in brightness. This active space invites the neighborhood into the campus and offers gathering places for campus members to meet and sit. 

“This is a place where people with ideas . . .are talking to each other and creating that climate that builds the future of our city,” commented Councilmember Richard Conlin at the opening. 

"South Lake Union is key to UW Medicine's ability to lead a significant portion of the nation's biomedical research enterprise well into the 21st Century," says Dr. Paul Ramsey, Dean of the UW School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs. "The opportunities for research collaboration across organizational and disciplinary lines are already enormous here, and the future holds much promise for UW Medicine to develop new interdisciplinary initiatives."

Read More

June 3, 2013 - As we head into the summer, GGN welcomes our Summer Design Interns Derek Hoetmer and John Spiess. 

Read More

May 29, 2013 - Bernie Alonzo, Principal, has been appointed to a two year term in the City of Seattle’s Design Commission. Alonzo joins Thomas J. Nelson and Brodie Bain in being appointed to the commission by Mayor Mike McGinn and confirmed by the Seattle City Council. 

“I am honored to join the Seattle Design Commission,” states Alonzo. “The City of Seattle has a number of large, transformative projects in process. Being a member of the commission is a great opportunity for me to give back to my city, providing insight and perspectives on critical design issues.”

Read the full press release here.

Read More

May 24, 2013 - The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce has announced that “fifteen projects were honored yesterday at the American Institute of Architects Washington Council's 2013 Civic Design Awards banquet in Seattle.” Gustafson Guthrie Nichol was the landscape architect for two of these projects, and the University of Washington was the client for both. The Husky Union Building renovation/expansion received an Honor Award, led by Perkins + Will architects with Skanska serving as the general contractor. West Campus Housing (Phase I) received a Citation Award, led by Mahlum architects with Walsh Construction Co. and W.G. Clark as the general contractors. All in all, “two honor, seven merit and six citation awards were given out; 61 projects were entered.”
 
Commenting on West Campus Housing, the Jury said,
“. . . the urban design of this challenging project is excellent. The sitting areas and other public space details are meaningful and the public connections at the large and small scale really work.”

Read More

May 17, 2013 - Keith McPeters is a featured speaker at the The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s Civic Horticulture Conference in Philadelphia, PA. The conference will focus on the evolving benefits and role of civic horticulture in the city. Once limited to merely aesthetics and economics, the role of civic horticulture has been expanded to leverage the interconnectedness of the natural, cultural and ecological systems that foster healthy, vibrant cities.
 
Participating on the Parks & Plazas panel, Keith’s presentation will highlight the legacy of the City Beautiful movement, how our perceptions of cities have changed through the 19th to 21st centuries, and with it our corresponding views of the roles of the city and nature. Today, the question of who will decide and what will define a “civic horticulture” is not as easily determined. By examining GGN projects such as Centennial Park Master Plan, Lurie Garden, and the new Cleveland Group Plan, Keith will explore different approaches to the designed landscape that might begin to determine a new “civic horticulture.”

UPDATE: May 29, 2013 - Keith McPeters' presentation was featured in The Dirt, the blog published by the Association of Landscape Architects.

Read More

May 11, 2013 - Shannon Nichol, Founding Principal of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, was a guest speaker at yesterday’s Prairie Gateway ASLA Awards Gala, along with Mark Focht, FASLA, 2012-2013 President-Elect of ASLA.
 
In her keynote address, Shannon discussed the unique openness of the landscape design process, which is constantly interacting with outside influences and multiple collaborators. “This openness adds complexity - it can be a formidable challenge to rationally progress a design into a coherent product – especially as compared to many design disciplines that are more isolated and less collaborative. In the face of many distractions, landscape architects become practiced in creating order and fascinated with finding clear outcomes.”

Read More