Cleveland Foundation Headquarters Recognized with ULI 2024 Award of Excellence

The Urban Land Institute recently selected ten projects from North America for its 2024 Awards for Excellence. We are thrilled our ongoing work with the Cleveland Foundation is among the projects recognized.

The Cleveland Foundation’s goal with its new headquarters was not simply to build an office building but to make a transformative place-based investment aligned with its mission and values. The 55,000-square-foot LEED-Gold-certified headquarters was conceived to fundamentally change the way the world’s first community foundation engages with the community it serves, while also changing the conversation and catalyzing equitable development in Cleveland’s historically redlined near east side neighborhoods.

The headquarters establishes a key community anchor in a district-wide redevelopment. Our initial planning work continues with implementation connected to the Foundation headquarters at the Dunham Tavern Museum and Gardens campus, the MidTown Collaboration Center, and future redevelopment along the new public greenway.

Congratulations to the many civic and community partners involved!

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.

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.

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.