News

December 21, 2017 –  On December 17, Kathryn Gustafson presented “Shaping the Earth” as the featured lecturer for the 2017-2018 Arts and Humanities Lecture Series, at Vashon Center for the Arts, on Vashon Island, WA. Kathryn shared her early influences in art and design as well as inspiration and ideas behind many of her projects from her work with GGN and Gustafson Porter + Bowman.

November 10, 2017 – "Drawing What You Can't See," with Shannon Nichol, Keith McPeters, and David Malda, kicks off the year-long "Drawing in Design: Exploring the Hand" lecture and workshop series that GGN launched and sponsors at the University of Washington College of Built Environments. The opening night lecture is at 5:30pm, November 17 at the University of Washington’s Gould Hall 322, Seattle, WA. The lecture is followed by a weekend workshop with registered UW architecture and landscape architecture students and design professionals that includes opportunities for discussions, exercises, and crits to explore the role of hand-drawing in design and development.

 “We’ve enjoyed working with the College of Built Environments and Dr. Thaisa Way to create a special workshop and lecture series at the University of Washington that focuses completely on drawing – not as rendering or an art form but as an essential design tool,” said Shannon Nichol. “The series’ guest designers come from a diverse range of fields but all use drawing – for most of them, hand-drawing – to create their design strategies and to thoroughly refine their work through to the fine detail. We are not focused in this series on renderings or on field sketching – not on those drawings that record things, however beautiful those recordings can be. We are focused on the internal, working drawings that make the new things that you can’t see yet but are charged with designing.”

October 30, 2017 – Rikerrious Geter of GGN addressed the Council of Fellows last week at the ASLA Annual Meeting and Expo in Los Angeles. He spoke about the impact of receiving the Council of Fellows Scholarship and the effects it has had on his college and professional career. Rikerrious was a 2014 scholarship recipient.

The Council of Fellows Scholarship was established by the ASLA Council of Fellows in 2004 to aid outstanding students who would not otherwise have an opportunity to continue a professional degree program due to financial need; to increase the interest and participation of economically disadvantaged and under-represented populations in the study of landscape architecture; and enrich the profession of landscape architecture through a more diverse population. In addition to receiving $5,000, each recipient received a one-year student ASLA membership, general registration fees for the ASLA Annual Meeting and EXPO, and a travel stipend to attend the meeting.

Photo credit: EPNAC

October 27, 2017 – Sara Zewde presents “Ecologies of Memory” at “How Designers Think,” a colloquium held by the Garden and Landscape Studies program at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collections. The colloquium will take place on November 3, 2017, 9:00am – 5:30pm, with the goal of bringing landscape architects and historians together to explore how urban environments got to be the way they are, and how best to manage them today. The colloquium provides the opportunity for our scholarly community to hear from a range of contemporary designers who are active in imagining better futures for our cities, and for the designers to engage with a historically informed audience.

October 23, 2017 – The American Society of Landscape Architects presented GGN with the Landscape Architecture Firm Award. This award is the highest honor the ASLA may bestow upon a landscape architecture firm in recognition of distinguished and influential work. The award was presented in Los Angeles.

The ASLA stated that "GGN was founded in 1999 by Jennifer Guthrie, FASLA, Shannon Nichol, FASLA, and Kathryn Gustafson, FASLA. As a collaborative firm deeply committed to the creation of landscapes that are beautiful, responsible, functional and innovative, GGN has produced a body of work that defines the best of the landscape architecture profession."

Speaking on behalf of the firm, Shannon Nichol said, “We are honored to receive the 2017 ASLA Landscape Architecture Firm Award. We are grateful to all of our clients, GGN team members, and collaborators who have helped us over the last 18 years to earn this special recognition.”  

October 11, 2017 – GGN is pleased to announce the promotion of Makie Suzuki from Associate to Senior Associate.

With her cross-cultural and multidisciplinary background, Makie Suzuki brings her strong commitment to a holistic approach and collaboration to the design process. She enjoys working on a variety of projects scales and creating cohesive, sustainable, and elegant design solutions.

Her continued involvement in academia contributes to creating progressive projects. At the University of Washington she instructs a seminar in Asian Urbanism.

October 10, 2017 – Two talented individuals have joined the staff at GGN.

Nanxi Dong joins the Seattle office as a Design Intern. Nanxi holds a Master of Landscape Architecture with Urban Design certificate from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining GGN, Nanxi worked on a variety of project types, including gardens, community designs, and regional plans in the US and abroad.

Helen Pierson joins GGN as a Design Intern having received her Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. She sees landscape architecture as an opportunity to apply her architectural studies and practice to the ongoing evolution of public spaces in cities.

October 4, 2017 – This Friday, October 6, Jennifer Guthrie will be delivering the Vern Budge Lecture to the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Department at Utah State University.

The Vern Budge and the Craig Johnson Lectures are part of an annual endowed series hosted by LAEP. These lectures have grown out of a tradition of bringing leaders in Landscape Architecture to this distinguished 78 year old program in the mountains of Northeastern Utah. Vern Budge was a distinguished teacher in this program who dedicated 40 years to educating the students about the skills required to design, detail and build distinguished work.

September 30, 2017 – On Monday, October 2, Shannon Nichol will be presenting the lecture "Drawing and Building Landscapes" at the School of Architecture at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. This is the first of the 2017–2018 Wave Sets lecture series.

October 3, 2017 – Jill Fortuna is serving on the 2017 Landscape Architecture Magazine Awards Jury. The awards presentation will be held at a special reception on Friday, October 20, from 6:00-8:00 pm at the ASLA Annual Meeting and Expo in Los Angeles. LAM editor Brad McKee will present and moderate a discussion with the jurors.

September 14, 2017 – Amy Cragg was the keynote speaker at the Sustainable SITES Initiative workshop hosted by Washington Chapter American Society of Landscape Architects (WASLA), American Society of Landscape Architects, and GBCI at GGLO. Amy presented her experience of working on the SITES pilot project, Theater Commons and Donnelly Garden, which is located at the Seattle Center. “It was exciting to share key lessons on successfully completing SITES documentation with the workshop participants,” said Amy Cragg.

September 9, 2017 – GGN and ZGF Architects collaborated on the installation UPLIFT for the Seattle Design Festival 2017 Block Party in Occidental Square this past weekend. This year’s theme title, “Power,” explores how design can power positive change. “During these tumultuous times, UPLIFT invites us to anchor our hopes in a collective effort. Through our interactions, we as individuals shape an evolving topography; over the course of the installation, our actions reveal a space for unity and empowerment. Come celebrate and elevate the bonds that unite us.” 

Design in Public and AIA Seattle, with more than 120 partners, will be hosting over 80 events and installations across greater Seattle through September 22, 2017.  “It’s important to reflect on our values as individuals and as a design community during a time when the world around us is changing rapidly,” said Debra Webb, Public Programs Manager of Design in Public. “This year’s Seattle Design Festival is all about exploring what role design has to play in elevating everyone’s quality of life.”

September 5, 2017 – Makie Suzuki is leading a group of students from the University of Washington with co-director Jeff Hou in Tokyo, Japan. As part of this UW Asian Urbanism Exploration Seminar, students are learning about the Ginza Honey Bee Project – creating a community through honey and urban agriculture among high-rise luxury commercial buildings.

August 31, 2017 – Bernie Alonzo served on a panel to discuss security design of public places, hosted by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and moderated by Nancy Somerville, Hon. ASLA, Executive Vice President and CEO.

In view of recent tragic events in Charlottesville, Barcelona, and London, the panel examined the urgent need to ensure the public’s safety on public, government, and institutional properties. Key design goals and challenges were addressed with a special focus on how to assess risk, balance addressing threats with public access, as well as recognizing that good design and good security are not incompatible. The virtual panel was recorded and can be viewed here.

August 23, 2017 – The Detroit RiverFront Conservancy announced today that GGN is among the four internationally-acclaimed firms that have been selected to move forward in a design competition for West Riverfront Park.

“We’re looking to do something unique and compelling for the City of Detroit,” said Matt Cullen, chairman of the board of directors of the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy. “West Riverfront Park will be a place that Detroiters and visitors alike will be drawn to, and that will be celebrated as one of the most special public spaces in the world.”

The competition is among the most significant in Detroit in decades and has drawn interest from leading architects and designers from throughout the world.