Design Philosophy
I believe that our clients shouldn’t have to sacrifice good design in order to be environmentally responsible, just as you don’t have to sacrifice the environment in order to have good design. Environmental responsibility is more than simply “do no harm.” We should leave each site better than it was before we came. We can’t forget, however, that we are usually designing spaces for people. Being ecologically responsible doesn’t have to mean creating animal habitats or using only native plants. (What plant is native to a city block, anyway? Dandilions?) It could mean keeping rainwater on site and recharging groundwater. It could mean creating shade to reduce a site’s contribution to the urban heat index. Every site and project offers its own potential; it's our job to develop the potential of that site and not to turn the site into something we wish it could be.