June 10, 2013 - GGN is pleased to announce the promotion of David Malda to Senior Associate.
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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."
June 3, 2013 - As we head into the summer, GGN welcomes our Summer Design Interns Derek Hoetmer and John Spiess.
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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.
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.”
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.
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.”
April 26, 2013 - Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) and the Potomac Chapter ASLA co-hosted a celebration of Landscape Architecture Month yesterday evening at GGN's Washington, DC office. Approximately 75 people attended the reception.
Liesel Fenner, President-Elect of the Potomac Chapter ASLA was in attendance. Also in attendance were Jennifer Guthrie, Founder and Principal of the Seattle-based landscape architecture firm, and Rodrigo Abela, who is serving as Principal in Charge of GGN's recently opened DC office.
GGN's DC office has numerous projects in progress on the East Coast, including several in Washington, DC: CityCenterDC; The National Museum of African American History and Culture; as well as the winning design for the National Mall Design Competition for Union Square.
April 15, 2013 - GGN is pleased to announce the promotions of Amy Cragg, David Nelson, and Tess Schiavone to Senior Associates.
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April 8, 2013 – Over the weekend, David Malda, Associate at Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, attended Xtreme LA: Berkeley. David was invited to participate in this annual event that pairs emerging design leaders with landscape architecture graduate students. In a highly charged one-and-a-half day period, teams were briefed by local representatives, visited key sites, and returned to a studio where they strategized, devised conceptual plans, created schematic designs, and developed presentations of their solutions.The workshop, sponsored by Landscape Forms and the Landscape Architecture Foundation, explored landscape responses to climate change and sea level rise. Final presentations were given before an audience that includes local officials and interested citizens.
In response to this experience, David commented, “It was incredibly invigorating to engage such critical issues with other professionals from across the nation and a very strong student group from the University of California, Berkeley.”
March 25, 2013 - Seattle-based landscape architects Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) are pleased to announce that Cheryl dos Remedios has joined the GGN team as Marketing & Communications Associate. With an interdisciplinary background in art, project management, public works, and landscape preservation, Cheryl is known for her success in connecting communities to the designed landscape and to the environment. Cheryl will enhance GGN's connections to the public and to its clients by leading GGN's public communications and marketing endeavors.
“Cheryl approaches her work through the uniquely layered lenses of an exhibit organizer, a conceptual artist, a curator, a photographer, and a community leader. We are delighted to have Cheryl's insights and leadership applied to our communications and outreach efforts at GGN. Cheryl helps us see our work with fresh eyes and an informed understanding of the public's connection to landscape and art,“ said Shannon Nichol, Founding Principal of GGN.
March 13, 2013 - ArchDaily reports, "After reviewing hundreds of projects submitted by New York City-based architects and firms, a jury of twelve eminent architects, landscape architects, educators, critics, and planners convened by the Center for Architecture in New York has selected 42 thoughtfully considered projects for the 2013 AIANY Chapter’s Design Awards. From small installations to large-scale projects, each awarded submission spanned a breadth of innovative ideas in a large variety of design solutions for projects throughout the world."
Kathryn Gustafson served on the Urban Design Jury with David Coomes and Alex Krieger. You can watch the three jurors talk about their selections at the 00:55:00 minute mark of this video.
March 5, 2013 – Theater Commons and Donnelly Gardens has been recognized by SITES, an interdisciplinary effort led by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and the United States Botanic Garden. SITES is a voluntary, national rating system for sustainable landscapes of all types, with or without buildings.
“Gustafson Guthrie Nichol should be proud of this achievement. The firm’s dedication to the environment and supporting public/private partnerships will benefit our community far into the future,” states Seattle’s Mayor Mike McGinn. “GGN’s design approach helps support Seattle Center as a public destination for experiencing innovative, urban water stewardship and sustainable landscapes.”
Read the full press release here.
March 1, 2013 - Presented in conjunction with the interactive exhibition Journey through the City, Rodrigo Abela delivers a First Friday Films lecture on the redesign of Union Square on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. This space has historically been utilized to accommodate memorialization, civic celebrations, protest, and recreation. Rodrigo will focus his lecture on the challenges of designing a multi-functional space in one of the nation’s most visible and popular locations.
To encourage visitors to interact with "a vocabulary for a city" yet to be invented, artist Miquel Navarro's exhibit Journey through the City provides visitors with a thousand pieces of different building materials, including aluminum, zinc, and wood. For inspiration, representations of current, innovative architecture and urban planning practices are exhibited on the gallery walls, including the redesign of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol.
February, 22, 2013 - Lend Lease, in partnership with the Barangaroo Delivery Authority, has assembled some of Australia’s and the world’s leading urban planners and landscape architects to undertake the next phase of master planning and public domain design at Barangaroo South, the 7.5 hectare (18.5 acres) southern section of a 22 hectare (54 acre) major redevelopment site on the international landmark of Sydney Harbor in Australia. GGN’s participation will be headed by founding partner Kathryn Gustafson and principal Grant Stewart.
Gustafson Guthrie Nichol has been appointed as International Public Domain Designer, with a principal role as the lead design landscape architect, entrusted with the design and delivery of a truly world class public domain solution. The site will be a true mixed-use precinct consisting of commercial office buildings, residential apartments, an international hotel, shops, cafes, restaurants, and cultural facilities
GGN will be working with team that consists of: Lord Richard Rogers and Ivan Harbour from RSH+P, and Lend Lease Design as the overall concept master planners; Sydney architect Tony Caro, from Tony Caro Architects, as Urban Design Director; Craig Allchin, Adjunct Professor of Architecture at University of Technology Sydney and founding director of Six Degrees Architects in Melbourne, as Local Urban Design advisor; and Aspect|Oculus, led by Sacha Coles and Roger Jasprizza continuing in their role as Project Landscape Architects.
November 8, 2012 - Keith McPeters, Principal at GGN, will be part of a panel discussion on "Places Between Spaces, Seattle's Pocket Parks" held at Town Hall, November 13th. This is part of the Seattle Architecture Foundation (SAF) Design in Depth Lecture Series.
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October 16, 2012 - Gustafson Guthrie Nichol welcomes our new colleagues Makie Suzuki, Fred Jala, and Chihiro Donovan.
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October 10, 2012 - GGN is pleased to announce the promotions of David Malda, Rebecca Fuchs, and Jill Fortuna to Associates.
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October 8, 2012 - GGN's Seattle office is now located in the historic Terminal Sales Building in downtown Seattle. Our new address is:
Gustafson Guthrie Nichol
1932 First Avenue, Suite 700
Seattle, WA 98101