Merritt Chase kicks off green infrastructure planning and design with the Western PA Conservancy

Highlands Middle School, Harrison Township, PA

Merritt Chase, along with team members Ethos Collaborative and JASE Construction Services, have kicked off a series of Community Greening Assessments with the Western PA Conservancy (WPC). Working with WPC and community members in Clairton, PA and Harrison Township, we are working through a three phase process of hydrologic inventory and green infrastructure opportunity mapping, design, and construction of green infrastructure facilities. Keep your eyes peeled for construction in Spring 2019!

“Building a business isn’t a singular act, it’s a series of small steps.”

“Building a business isn’t a singular act, it’s a series of small steps.” - Eric Reinholdt, Architect + Author Architect + Entrepreneur

This Monday, we’ll be sharing the small steps we’ve taken to build our young practice. Join Nina Chase at 4pm EST for the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s latest Emerging Professional’s webinar featuring Los Angeles-based landscape architecture firm Superjacent and Merritt Chase.

Fun #landarch fact, both firms were founded by past LAF Olmsted Scholars, Chris Torres ‘12, Chris Merritt ‘11, and Nina Chase ‘09.

Update: A recording of the live webinar lives here.

Chris Merritt to moderate Exhibit Columbus conversation with Frida Escobedo and Daniel Ostroff

Join Merritt Chase’s Chris Merritt in conversation with Frida Escobedo and Daniel Ostroff on Thursday, November 15th at 5pm for an Exhibit Columbus Evening Conversation in Columbus, Indiana.

Meet 2018-19 J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize Winner, Frida Escobedo of Frida Escobedo Studio in her first public presentation in Columbus. Escobedo’s studio will create an installation for the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library Plaza during Exhibit Columbus’ 2019 exhibition, which opens to the public on August 24, 2019.

Special guest Daniel Ostroff, an Eames scholar and film producer, will present on Eames + Morality prior to our program with Frida Escobedo. Ostroff is the author of "Modern Classic", "Eames + Valastro", and "Collecting Eames." He was consulting curator for Eames Words and curator of Collecting Eames: The JF Chen Collection, both for The Getty Museum’s Pacific Standard Time Consortium.

Following presentations by Daniel Ostroff and Frida Escobedo, Chris Merritt will lead a moderated discussion with our guests. Merritt is a landscape architect and founding principal of Merritt Chase, and currently serves on the Curatorial Advisory Committee for Exhibit Columbus.

Central State Vision Plan to debut at PUP's 10-year anniversary event

Next Tuesday evening join Merritt Chase and People for Urban Progress (PUP) at DAYLIGHT for the debut of the Central State Vision Plan and the celebration of PUP’s 10-year anniversary. The Central State Vision Plan is a plan for campus connectivity and the Historic Grove. Learn more about the plan here. RSVP for DAYLIGHT here.

Join Merritt Chase in Philly for ASLA 2018

This week we’re Philly bound for the National American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Annual Meeting.

We’ll be celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Olmsted Scholar Program on Friday at the LAF annual benefit. Want to join? Tickets are available here.

You can also join Nina Chase for Monday’s panel Sensing the City to learn how to define, collect, and disseminate site-specific data. Panelists include Rebecca Popowsky of OLIN, Stephanie Carlisle of KieranTimberlake, and Kate DeSantis of Gehl. Keep your eyes peeled for Merritt Chase projects Kit of Parks, Take a Seat, and Bae Bae’s Greenhouse.

We hope to see you there!

Landscape Architecture Magazine features the Pittsburgh Steps!

Check out the latest October issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine to see how we imagined Pittsburgh’s steps as vertical parks.

Nina Chase joins Harvard's Graduate School of Design Alumni Council

The GSD Alumni Council is the primary representative body of Graduate School of Design alumni. Nina Chase, MLA ‘12, joins a diverse group of practitioners from across the globe. Learn more about the Council here.

Merritt Chase is on the road!

Image Credit: Exhibit Columbus

Join Merritt Chase this week as we travel across the Midwest to Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Columbus.

You can find Chris at the Public x Design Conference in Detroit, MI, and Nina at the Urban Manufacturing Alliance Pittsburgh Gathering in Pittsburgh, PA.

Both Chris and Nina will be attending the Exhibit Columbus National Symposium, in Columbus, IN, for a weekend chock-full of modern landscape architecture and architecture. Chris is currently serving on the Exhibit Columbus Curatorial Advisory Committee.

Merritt Chase shortlisted for redesign of Shaker Square in Cleveland, OH

Merritt Chase, with team members Utile, ThirdSpace Action Lab, Nelson Nygaard, HR&A Advisors, and Osborn Engineering, has been shortlisted for the redesign of Shaker Square in Cleveland, OH.

Led by Cleveland Neighborhood Progress and Land Studio, the request for proposal invited designers to propose a robust process and design vision to transform the civic space on Cleveland's east side.

Merritt Chase joins Hargreaves, Melk!, and Realm Collaborative/Agency Landscape + Planning as a shortlisted team.

What does it mean to engage in activism through design? To engage in design through activism?

Image Credit: the Ian L. McHarg Center

The recently opened Ian L. McHarg Center at the University of Pennsylvania posed the following question to design practitioners and academics: What does it mean to engage in activism through design? To engage in design through activism?

Read the responses here, including Nina Chase's essay about working proactively, as opposed to reactively, in the field of landscape architecture. Inspired by the Landscape Architecture Foundation's New Landscape Declaration (and the subsequent Olmsted Scholar's response), Nina offers the following actions as a working blueprint for design activism: show up, start small, get loud.