December 6, 2010 - In a public meeting today, GGN presented final plans and recommendations to Nashville's Centennial Park Master Plan Committee. Mayor Karl Dean created the Committee to revitalize the city's historic, central park.

GGN led the multi-disciplinary team that, with public input, formulated the long-range plan. The plan acknowledges past and future simultaneously, respecting the tradition of Centennial Park while transforming the park into a model of sustainable ecological practice and horticultural excellence. Centennial Park is on the National Register of Historic Places. The park was the site of the 1897 Centennial Exposition.

November 11, 2010 - Landscape Forms announces the Maggie Bench and Charlie Table, designs from Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN). Both were originally designed for Millennium Park and are now available for use in sites around the world.

The Maggie Bench expresses the form and gesture of the human body, with a light stance and a minimal use of materials.

The Charlie Table re-imagines the traditional picnic table as a fluid and ergonomic piece of furniture. Charlie's open ends provide integrated wheelchair access.

November 11, 2010 - GGN, Mithun, and SvR Design are co-hosting a Landscape Architecture Foundation event on November 30th at 4:30 p.m. at the Seattle Central Library Microsoft Auditorium. The event will introduce LAF's Landscape Performance Series – an online interactive set of resources showing the value of sustainable landscape solutions with tools to quantify benefits and make the case for sustainable landscapes. www.lafoundation.org

Following the event, please join us at a benefit reception to support the Landscape Architecture Foundation at Mithun, Pier 56 at 6:30 pm.

Sponsored by: Valley Crest Nursery, Iron Age Designs, Hewitt, Poulsen, Cedar Grove, Landscape Forms, KPFF, Cold Spring Granite, CMS Collaborative, Krekow Jennings, Urban Accessories, Architecreation, and Planting Design.

November 8, 2010 - Kathryn Gustafson joined the World Architecture Foundation's Super Jury over the weekend in Barcelona. Kathryn stepped in to replace Benedetta Tagliabue who had to recuse herself at the last minute due to a conflict of interest.

Other jury members include Arata Isozaki, Barry Bergdoll,  who is the Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Enrique Norten, founder of TEN Arquitectos, and Hanif Kara of engineer Adams Kara Taylor.

October 4, 2010 - A Garden Grows Up: Six-Year-Old Lurie Garden Continues to Amaze Visitors (click to go to article) appears in today's edition of the Chicago Tribune. The article interviews the Lurie Garden's new executive director, Jennifer Davit, and discusses the success of the Garden in creating habitat for birds, bees, and butterflies in the heart of downtown Chicago. 

October 1, 2010 - GGN has been retained by Cleveland's Group Plan Commission to produce urban-design recommendations for the network of streets and open spaces in Cleveland's historic core and waterfront. LMN Architects is GGN's partner in this project, evaluating architectural development and the important built fabric of the project area. The GGN/LMN plan is a first step in the Commission's initiative to revitalize the landmark Group Plan civic district and mall, designed by Daniel Burnham and collaborators in 1903. For additional information about Cleveland's Group Plan Commission, please click here.

August 16, 2010 - GGN Associate Emily Pizzuto will be one of the jurors for this year's Landscape Architecture Magazine Awards, also known as the Lammies. Other jurors include Jeffrey Carbo of Jeffrey Carbo Landscape Architects, Susan Van Atta of Van Atta Associates, Chris Della Vedova of Confluence, and Susannah Ross of Sasaki Associates.

The awards will be presented at a special ceremony on Friday, September 10th, part of the ASLA annual meeting in Washington, DC.

August 10, 2010 - AIA Seattle's New Edge | New Blood opening reception is tonight from 5-7 p.m. in the AIA Seattle Gallery at 1911 First Avenue. New Edge | New Blood explores not just great design but how to get there. The curatorial team included GGN partner Shannon Nichol, Jay Deguchi, Rick Sundberg, and David Spiker. More information can be found here. 

August 6, 2010 - The Lurie Garden in Chicago is profiled in the July/August edition of Garden Design Magazine. The article includes a profile of GGN Partner Shannon Nichol.

A pdf of the article can be viewed here.

July 27, 2010 - GGN Associate Amy Cragg will be participating in a tour of Seattle green roof projects organized by Seattle Public Utilities on July 30th and August 3rd. Amy will be speaking about the Seattle Center’s 5th Avenue North Garage from the vantage point of the Space Needle. The Garage is located adjacent to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s new campus. Twelve acres of surface parking was consolidated into the Garage which is covered with a 1.5 acre green roof. Amy was the GGN Project Manager for the project and NBBJ was the architect.

For more information on the tours click here.

July 1, 2010 - GGN will be taking part in Seattle Department of Transportation's Walk.Bike.Ride Challenge. The SDOT Challenge asks participants to pledge to replace two car trips per week with walking, biking, or riding the bus. More information can be found here. 

June 25, 2010 - AIA Seattle's New Edge | New Blood will be opening on August 10th and running through October 1st. New Edge | New Blood explores not just great design but how to get there. The curatorial team included GGN partner Shannon Nichol, Jay Deguchi, Rick Sundberg, and David Spiker. The curatorial team selected firms for their innovative use of interdisciplinary talent, unique methods of project delivery, and for pushing the boundaries of architectural design while operating within economic realities. The opening reception will be August 10th from 5-7 p.m. in the AIA Seattle Gallery. More information can be found here. 

June 15, 2010 - Theater Commons at Seattle Center opened to the public today. This afternoon's dedication included site tours by GGN designers Shannon Nichol and Amy Cragg. Theater Commons transforms what was a small parking lot into a lush new entrance to Seattle Center, that serves both the Seattle Repertory Theater and the Intiman Theater. Theater Commons is an example of sustainable site development, as all site surface water and run-off from adjacent roofs will be collected and filtered in rain gardens.

May 21, 2010 - GGN Principal Keith McPeters will be delivering the keynote address at the ASLA Oregon Symposium and Design Awards on Saturday, June 5th. 

On May 19th, GGN Associate Bernie Alonzo was a guest lecturer for the University of Washington Extension School's Implementing Low Impact Development for Civil Engineers course. Bernie's lecture was entitled "Implementing LID: Green Roof Detailing Considerations.

May 10, 2010 - GGN has been selected as the landscape architect for the Cleveland Medical Mart and Convention Center project. GGN is collaborating with local landscape architecture firm McKnight Associates, Ltd of Cleveland. LMN Architects of Seattle is the Design Architect on the project. More information about the project can be found here.

May 4 , 2010 - Kathryn Gustafson was recently interviewed by the American Society of Landscape Architects. Her interview may be read here.

April 27, 2010 - The American Society of Landscape Architects announced today the 2010 recipients of its prestigious Honor Awards and Awards of Excellence. GGN Partner Shannon Nichol served on the 2010 Honor Awards jury which was responsible for selecting this year's award recipients, from a record-setting field of high-quality entries from around the world.

April 24, 2010 - A recent article in the Green Bay Press-Gazette includes an interview with new Lurie Garden Chief Horticulturalist Jennifer Davit as she explains sustainable principles incorporated in the Lurie Garden. The Lurie Garden website, also includes a detailed sustainability description.

April 21, 2010 - GreenWabii highlights BIG's design proposal in the recent competition for a new expansion for the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec. Gustafson Guthrie Nichol was a member of BIG's team. 

March 24 , 2010 - Shannon Nichol will be lecturing tomorrow evening at Landscape Architecture Days, an annual event held at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO. More information on LA Days and the 2010 speakers can be found here.

March 1, 2010 - GGN Principal Rodrigo Abela was joined by fellow panelist Lisa Green, Assistant Director, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and Moderator Eric Kramer, Associate, ReedHilderbrand Landscape Architecture Inc. to participate in "Shaping Cultural Landscapes: Linking Institutions and People Through Landscape" panel at the Building Museum Symposium in New York. The panel explored how institutions can work with landscape architects more effectively.

February 15, 2010 - On Wednesday, February 17th at 4 p.m. AIA Seattle will kick off "YOUR CITY Outside", the first in a year-long series of four discussions on the future of Seattle's spaces. This first event features GGN director Shannon Nichol and Ray Gastil, the recent head of Seattle's Department of Planning and Development. Shannon and Ray will be discussing their ideas, impressions, and passions for the transformation of our city’s urban spaces, and the city as a whole. They will each present a twenty minute presentation then an hour and a half of dialog and discussion with the audience will follow. The salon will take place at Henrybuilt at 997 Western Avenue

February 4, 2010 - Mayor Karl Dean and The Conservancy for the Parthenon & Centennial Park announced today that Gustafson Guthrie Nichol (GGN) has been selected to lead the design team for the Centennial Park Master Plan.

 “Gustafson Guthrie Nichol designs have enhanced signature public spaces across the country,” Dean said. “I am thrilled they will be working here in Nashville on Centennial Park.”

February 3, 2010 - On Friday, February 5th, an unusually large Big Leaf Maple will be planted at the future entry to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation campus. This specimen has a trunk diameter of almost 8 inches and weighs approximately 10,000 pounds, so a large crane will be used to move the tree into place. With its charismatic, giant leaves, the native Big Leaf Maple is a signature feature of Seattle’s unique, natural landscape, so it will be used throughout the new campus. Big Leaf Maple hosts a special community of other native plants, birds, and beneficial insects within its high canopy, and it will enhance the urban habitat value of the campus.

February 2, 2010 – The Building Stone Institute announced today that the prestigious Tucker Design Award was awarded to the Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. The award-winning Courtyard was designed by landscape architects Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, within an architectural renovation by Foster + Partners architects. This is Gustafson Guthrie Nichol’s third Tucker Design Award. Since its inception in 1977, the Tucker Design Award has been recognized as one of the most prestigious architectural design awards in the country. The award honors those who have achieved excellence in design through the incorporation and use of natural stone in their building or landscape project. 

January 26, 2010 - GGN Partner Shannon Nichol participated in the "Trail to Treasure" design workshop on Saturday, January 30th. The workshop was a component of a planning project to prepare a conceptual plan for a recreational and interpretive trail through Seattle's historic Pioneer Square neighborhood called "Trail to Treasure". The project is sponsored by the Pioneer Square Community Association in collaboration with the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. A Public Meeting was held at the conclusion of the workshop to present and discuss the workshop results.