Great spaces don’t just happen. They require a focused effort to understand the challenges, test solutions that are innovative and responsive to user needs, and outline clear, implementable strategies. On every project we follow the same general process to achieve this.

Learn

We always begin with a discovery phase. We dive deep into background documents, ask questions, study other successful projects around the world, research the site’s history, and spend time on the ground at the project site. This sets the parameters for the project and ensures we have a sound understanding of the current context as well as opportunities and challenges that may exist.

Listen

Meaningful engagement is a pillar of our process. We feel it is our responsibility to extract all points of view, evaluate the information received, and allow it to fundamentally shape the project. On every project, we work collaboratively with our clients to identify stakeholders that need to be engaged, and use a variety of inclusive tools that make engagement enjoyable and yield high-quality feedback.

Explore

Using the information gathered from the previous steps, this is when we put pencil to paper to explore and test design ideas that address challenges and needs identified. In all of our work, we aim to be creative yet pragmatic, and never lose sight of the project budget and schedule. This ensures we find only those solutions that are forward-thinking, actionable, and best serve our clients’ needs.

Execute

Whether the final project deliverable is a report or a built piece of infrastructure, we always ensure our work is:

• Visual, straightforward, and engaging, so that outcomes can be understood in tangible and meaningful ways;

• Socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically responsible;

• “Of place,” fitting the context and celebrating the uniqueness and character of the community.