SmithGroup Wins Big at 2017 MiASLA Annual Awards

SmithGroup, one of the nation’s largest integrated design firms, received several honors and awards from the Michigan Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (MiASLA). The recognition was announced at the organization’s Annual Meeting & Awards Dinner, themed Gaining Ground: Detroit’s New Renaissance.

Clare Jagenow, PLA, ASLA, a landscape architect at SmithGroup’s Ann Arbor office and an active member of MiASLA for over 11 years, was presented with the MiASLA “Distinguished Member Award.” In addition, four of the firm’s recent projects—the Port Huron Blue Water River Walk, Lake Trust Credit Union Headquarters, Ford Motor Company Campus and Workplace Master Plan, and University of Wisconsin-Madison Campus Master Plan Update—were recognized for their innovative landscape architectural planning and design techniques.

Each year, the MiASLA “Distinguished Member Award” recognizes one member who has made significant contributions to the organization and the community through volunteerism, advocacy and educational initiatives. As immediate past president, Jagenow has led several initiatives to spread the profession of landscape architecture, including state-wide awareness campaigns about the valuable role of landscape architects in promoting society’s health, safety and welfare, as well as lobbying for increased state licensure protection. In 2010, she was recognized with the MiASLA “Emerging Professional Award.”

Jagenow has contributed to several of the firm’s significant campus and urban planning projects, including the Green Grand Rapids Infrastructure Plan and the Christman Company headquarters in Lansing, Michigan, the world’s first quadruple LEED Platinum certified project.

Additionally, three staff members from SmithGroup’s Ann Arbor office have been elected to chapter leadership positions for the 2017-18 term: Alicia Adams, PLA, ASLA has been elevated to Associate Member-at-Large; Monique Bassey, landscape designer, will continue her role as chapter secretary while helping further implement the ASLA Diversity Summit action plan to promote diversity in the profession; Adam Fercho, LEED AP BD+C, will serve as Vice President of Membership for the upcoming year.

SmithGroup was the recipient of the 2017 MiASLA Honor Award for Design for the Blue Water River Walk in Port Huron, Michigan. Over the past seven years, SmithGroup has completed a series of multi-phased planning and design projects that have played a critical role in revitalizing Port Huron’s urban waterfront area, allowing residents and visitors to take advantage of new fishing and water access points, interpretive learning opportunities, outdoor classrooms and activity nodes along the River Walk. Intermixed with the public recreational improvements were significant environmental enhancements, including native landscape and aquatic habitat restoration and a new wetland park.

In the same category, SmithGroup was also awarded a MiASLA Merit Award for the Lake Trust Credit Union Headquarters in Brighton, Michigan. Situated on a 16-acre site graced with significant wetlands, woodlands and topography, this ground-up facility takes advantage of the opportunity to create a special experience for all employees. Adhering to the client’s vision, all design solutions were considered from the perspective of the sweeping views out to the property, and the desire to blur the lines between the interior and exterior experience.

As further testament to the firm’s depth of expertise in transformative master planning for the workplace, SmithGroup received the 2017 MiASLA Honor Award for Landscape Planning & Analysis for the Ford Motor Company Campus and Workplace Master Plan in Dearborn, Michigan. The master plan positions the Research and Engineering Center and the Ford World Headquarters as iconic mixed-use research, office and technology campuses that embody Ford’s cultural shift from a car company to a multinational mobility company. SmithGroupJJR assisted Ford in developing strategies for low-entropy campuses for both centralized locations to minimize energy waste and maximize productivity.

For the University of Wisconsin-Madison Campus Master Plan Update, SmithGroup won another MiASLA Honor Award for Landscape Planning & Analysis. As an integrated part of its master plan, UW-Madison merged a more traditional campus landscape planning process with a performance-based green infrastructure approach. Recognizing that the future health of the campus and lake are interdependent, this innovative, precedent-setting plan achieves significant, measurable improvements in stormwater management and water quality within a restored and more connected network of historic and culturally rich landscapes. In addition to being the first landscape-focused master plan in university history, it also sets a new national standard for the integrated development of public and performance landscapes in a campus environment, providing a proactive benchmark for other institutions to emulate.

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