Merritt Chase Selected to Design Downtown Entrance Plaza in Columbus, Indiana

The City of Columbus Redevelopment Commission has announced it has selected Merritt Chase to redesign a 1.5-acre plaza at the city's most prominent entrance into downtown. The project is in collaboration with Columbus Design Institute, a technical service arm of Landmark Columbus Foundation. 

The Downtown Entrance Plaza site is split north and south by a four-lane highway, State Road 46, and encompasses two adjacent memorials, including the POW/MIA/Law Enforcement Plaza and Robert D. Garton Veterans Plaza. The two halves form a circle, a key feature of the design completed by Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates (MVVA) in 2000. As a main entry into Columbus, approximately 28,000 vehicles pass through this plaza each day. Upon vehicular entry to downtown and the plaza, the Robert N. Stewart Bridge frames the Bartholomew County Courthouse.

The project's goals are to transform the landscape into a more desirable space, collaborate with local partners and adjacent projects, improve key design features and connectivity, and ensure the project’s integrity and universal accessibility.

“Collaborating with CDI on this project has brought forth remarkable design firms,” says Heather Pope, Director of the Redevelopment Commission, City of Columbus. “We are thrilled to move forward with Merritt Chase and welcome their contribution to Columbus’ design legacy. We are confident they will design a public space that is accessible and memorable to our community and stakeholders.”

We are honored to have the opportunity to contribute to the extraordinary design legacy that has shaped Columbus, Indiana!

Eskenazi Health Thomas & Arlene Grande Campus Ribbon Cutting

Eskenazi Health and Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County officially unveiled its newest and largest health center on East 38th Street on the far eastside of Indianapolis. We have been proud to work with Eskenazi, neighborhood residents, and local community organizations on the design of the campus, and we are excited to watch the public green spaces come to life when the neighborhood arrives. Guided by public input, the campus serves as a hub for community gathering, providing accessible care options and social amenities in one places.

Eskenazi has a long history of caring for the city’s most vulnerable population. “At Eskenazi Health, we know our greatest opportunity to improve the health and vitality of our patients and, by extension, the health and vitality of our community, lies in providing access to care that encompasses the whole person and the many factors contributing to good health.” said Lisa Harris, M.D., chief executive officer of Eskenazi Health.

The 12-acre landscape includes community plaza areas, a loop trail, healing gardens, native meadows and stormwater mitigation connected to Pogue’s Run, a farm and orchard, and two sculptures commissioned from local artists.

Danica Liongson Speaking at LABash 2024

Danica Liongson will be speaking at LABash on March 30 at UC Davis. Since 1970, LABash is a student-led conference for landscape architecture held in North America by a different landscape architecture program each year. The conference brings hundreds of students and professionals together to learn, network, and help shape the future of the profession.

Danica’s talk titled “The Future of Downtown: Designing Places for Joy and Delight After COVID-19” will explore the Monument Circle Park project in downtown Indianapolis.

Chris Merritt on Design Minded Podcast

Chris Merritt joins the Design Minded podcast to discuss designing public spaces in cities and current work happening across Indianapolis. You can listen here: Design Minded Podcast

Merritt Chase Selected to Design Canal Basin Park in Cleveland, Ohio

Canal Basin Park is a 20-acre confluence of connected public green spaces and a significant historic site on the Cuyahoga River in downtown Cleveland. In the early 19th century, it marked the origins of Cleveland as the center of commerce at the terminus of the Ohio Erie Canal and the gateway to the Great Lakes. As Cleveland developed, the Canal Basin was filled and repurposed with railroad infrastructure, roads and parking, and other industrial land uses.
 
Today, the park site sits in the middle of significant adjacent development and existing assets including the regional Towpath Trail, Heritage Park and Settler’s Landing, Public Square, the Sherwin Williams and Bedrock developments, construction on Irishtown Bend, the Detroit-Superior Bridge Viaduct and Redline Greenway planning, and connectivity to the downtown Lakefront redevelopment. In 2021, the completion of the Towpath Trail into downtown Cleveland connected this park to a broader region. The City together with Canalway Partners, Cleveland Metroparks, and the Ohio Department of Transportation completed the Towpath Trailhead at the park by removing underutilized parking lots preparing the park for its next phase.
 
The public planning process for Canal Basin Park will create a design that aims to be visionary and implementable. The project will build upon past planning efforts and will focus on celebrating the park’s unique industrial heritage, river ecology, and cultural history while creating an experience for all park users where everyone feels like they belong. The park is meant to connect to a broader context in the city along the river and trails, and transform the varied and disparate land uses into a unified and complementary park experience. The park planning will also focus on future amenities and programming, repurposing infrastructure and updating utilities, and sustaining future funding and operations for the park.

We are excited to be working with The City of Cleveland, ThirdSpace Action Lab, OHM Advisors, and many other partners to plan the future of Canal Basin Park!

Riverlife Kicks Off West End Bridge Access Structures Project

Next week we’re kicking off public meetings for the West End Bridge access structures! Join Riverlife and the full West End Bridge design team, led by El Dorado, for a virtual session Monday, December 4th or for the in-person session Tuesday, December 5th.

The West End Bridge is ranked as one of the most challenging and extraordinary opportunities for transformation along Pittsburgh’s riverfronts. The project includes the design of new pedestrian and cyclist circulation routes through park spaces to the ends of the West End Bridge. The new structures and integrated public spaces will create accessible, safe, and artful paths that connect the historic bridge to its adjacent neighborhoods and regional trail networks.

We have been working with Riverlife, El Dorado Architects, Thorton Tomasetti, Sans Facon, Burro Happold and others.

Merritt Chase in Minneapolis for ASLA National Conference on Landscape Architecture

Join the Merritt Chase team in Minneapolis at the ASLA conference Thursday, October 26 through Monday, October 30. Nina Chase will be presenting on two panels:

The Future of Downtown Indianapolis: Designing for Inclusive Economic Growth After COVID-19

Monday, October 30 - 11:00am - 12:00pm CT

Scarlett A. Andrews

Deputy Mayor of Economic Development

City of Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development

Lydia Gaby

Principal

HR&A Advisors

Nina Chase

Founding Principal

Merritt Chase

Family Friendly Cities: Crafting Great Urban Spaces for Kids, Teens, and Caregivers

Saturday, October 28 - 3:45 - 5:00pm CT

Jessica Thorpe

Principal & Founder

Storyboard

Kate Tooke

Principal

Agency Landscape + Planning

Nina Chase

Founding Principal

Merritt Chase

We will be celebrating Danica Liongson as a 2023 WxLA Scholar and attending the Landscape Architecture Foundation Annual Benefit, The Cultural Landscape Foundation 25th Anniversary Reception, and Nina Chase will be hosting the Harvard GSD Alumni Reception as the Alumni Council Co-Chair.

Chris Merritt Leads TCLF What's Out There Weekend Tour in Cleveland

As part of The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s What’s Out There Weekend in Cleveland, Chris Merritt led attendees on a tour of the Dunham Tavern Museum and Gardens with museum Director Lauren Murray. The Cultural Landscape Foundation What’s Out There Weekend program brings together thousands of attendees in cities across the country offering two days of free, expert-led tours, encouraging participants to discover the little-known history of a region’s parks, gardens, plazas, cemeteries, memorials, and neighborhoods.

The tour of the Dunham Tavern Museum and Gardens focused on the recently completed master plan with LAND Studio and ongoing implementation with the museum. The themes of the master plan and discussion with tour attendees centered on historic landscape preservation and adaptation with the evolving mission of the museum’s interpretation and programming, inclusive community engagement during master planning and implementation and equitable outcomes for public accessibility on the museum campus, and translating cultural heritage and neighborhood identity into landscape design and programming.

Danica Liongson Selected as a 2023 WxLA Scholar

Danica Liongson has been selected as a 2023 WxLA Scholar among ten other designers from across the country. The WxLA scholarship aids in the professional development and success of emerging and mid-career leaders in the landscape architecture profession. WxLA is an advocacy initiative created in 2018 to encourage and lead efforts toward equality in landscape architecture. WxLA raises awareness for the challenges that prevent womxn from reaching their highest potential, provides information about the barriers to womxn and strategies for change and celebrate new models of working. The scholarship provides resources to attend the national ASLA conference and future engagement with the WxLA cohort.

With every design project and initiative that Danica is involved in, she brings an unmatched energy and inspiration for making an impact through landscape architecture and improving public spaces around her. Danica is a landscape designer with Merritt Chase in Indianapolis. Her design work and research examine the interconnected ecological and social systems in the public realm. She is a graduate of Harvard GSD and UC Davis, where her work received multiple honors, including an ASLA Certificate of Honor and Harvard GSD’s Peter Walker and Partners Fellowship for Landscape Architecture. Danica’s approach to landscape architecture is shaped by the synergy between practice, teaching and service. She is a former adjunct faculty member at Boston Architectural College and will serve as Co-Vice President on the incoming executive committee of INASLA.

Exhibit Columbus Public by Design Opening Weekend in Columbus, Indiana

Join our team, the Columbus community, and national leaders from the planning, design, and architecture community at the Opening Weekend of Public by Design on August 25 - 26 in Columbus, Indiana. The 2022 - 2023 cycle of Exhibit Columbus is the fourth cycle and aims to create meaningful connections between people and the public spaces they share. For Public by Design, Chris Merritt was one of six Curatorial Partners who shaped the theme and advanced the vision for the symposium and exhibition with Paola Aguirre, Lauren M. Pacheco, Bryony Roberts, Raymund Ryan, and Holly Warren. On Saturday, August 26 the Curatorial Partners will host a public conversation to discuss the theme, curation of the exhibit, public process, and aspirations for its impact on the Columbus community.