Damon Farber

Help us plan this trail! The Glacial Hills Regional Trail will eventually run from Hugo, Minnesota to William O'Brien State Park, and we're helping Washington County find the best route possible. Share your insights with us tomorrow at Hugo City Hall between 4:30 and 6:30 PM.

More info on the project here: https://co.washington.mn.us/3645/Glacial-Hills-Regional-Trail

In October 2023, we pause to acknowledge and celebrate Tom Whitlock’s 30 years of commitment to Damon Farber Landscape Architects. Rising from a fresh-faced intern in 1993 – to firm owner and President today – Tom’s skillful leadership has carried the firm through an ownership transition and into an exciting new chapter. Tom always places the needs of others first, builds sincere relationships, and champions others around him to reach their full potential. His strong ethics guide the firm and fosters an environment in which everyone feels valued, trusted, and empowered to suggest new ideas, uncover alternative solutions, and draw on creative problem-solving skills. Needless to say, it’s a pleasure to work for a caring, kind, and ethical leader. He empowers all of us to achieve innovative outcomes on behalf of our clients.⁠
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We imagine that his kindness, sincerity, commitment, and friendship have impressed many others in the AEC community. Please join us at Damon Farber in celebrating Tom Whitlock’s accomplishments over his first 30 years. You missed the breakfast we hosted in his honor, but we hope you’ll take a moment to text, call, email, or see Tom soon and remind him how remarkable he is – just as we did the other week!

DF/ is excited to showcase our efforts to enhance sustainable design metrics in practice. As part of our Green Studio Taskforce, an internal team committed to expanding and elevating sustainable design in our work, we embarked on an initiative to understand and quantify the environmental performance of designed landscapes and share what we’ve learned to support broader adoption of sustainable design metrics in landscape architecture.

In the recent issue of _SCAPE magazine, our team describes how we’ve strengthened our strategic approach to sustainable design by adopting guiding principles, research and development of tools to better educate our team and clients, and creating calculators to measure environmental impact and translate data into digestible information. We share tips and tricks to encourage others to incorporate sustainability metrics in their own work to inform design decisions, adopt the Climate Positive Design Challenge - an industry goal to design our projects to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than they emit - and expand the conversation among landscape architects, allied professions, and clients.

For a deeper dive into our work, check out Jodi Refsland and Tessa Rugg’s article in the latest issue of _SCAPE magazine!

Members of the Appleton community: we hope you'll join us next week at the Thrivent Ballard Community Plan Open House!

Thrivent is in the early stages of developing a master plan that will guide the long-term development of its 600-acre campus located in Appleton between Ballard Road and Meade Street, north of I-41. The planning process will create a framework to guide development of the land over the next several decades. We hope to hear your input on how together we can create a vibrant and connected community.

For more information on the project and the upcoming open house, head to www.thriventdevelopment.com

It's ! See how our initial vision for Vesterheim Heritage Park came to life over the summer as it's spaces were activated by various events and festivals. ⁠
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Site photography courtesy of the Vesterheim Museum. Wood work and carving for the shade structures were done by the Norwegian Termite, Jack Holmen.⁠
http://www.norwegiantermite.com/⁠
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Find more project information on our website - link in bio! ⁠
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Tracking the seasons at Maple Grove Central Park - 3 months make all the difference in Minnesota!

The VERVE Madison is a 12-story student housing community located two blocks from the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. The VERVE’s community amenities include a rooftop pool deck with hot tub, multi-purpose turf area, cabanas, grill stations and fire pits. Additionally, there are over 6,500 square feet of intensive prairie-style green roof pollinator gardens. One thing is for certain; the birds and butterflies will be happy.

Public Engagement was a key part of the design process for Bluffview Community Park. During Covid, our team pivoted to find creative and safe ways to reach out to the members of the Bluffview Community, and residents and stakeholders across Sauk County. Building on an initial County activity that encouraged youth to design their own park, we strategized ways to tailor activities and gather feedback from diverse user groups to influence the park’s character and specific features. Our team developed an interactive survey that included multilingual content, videos to share details of the proposed concept, and a park-pass give-away to encourage participation. Quantitative and qualitative results from the easy-to-use survey poured in and informed the park’s colorful and whimsical character and features that are good for all ages, including multiple picnic areas and a small gathering space that serves as an outdoor reading room and space to overlook the pond & shoreline restoration.

Check out the virtual survey example at the link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_NvRtwnnsw

Please join us in welcoming Rachel Peterson to our office!⁠

Drawing from her background in biology and psychology, Rachel’s design work is rooted in the human experience. She is inspired by the connections that the built environment can create between people as well as with our surroundings. Rachel is fascinated by the roles that narratives play in our field and is constantly exploring ways in which landscape design can disclose existing stories and construct new ones.

Trane Park, a Wisconsin ASLA Honor Award winner, was envisioned as an all-ages and all-abilities park. The space brings together kids, families, friends and loved ones in a safe and accessible inclusive play environment. Born from a need to accommodate kids with autism in a safe and secure park, members of the La Crosse Area Autism Foundation approached the city stating a need for a new type of park that addressed the needs of everyone.

Our design team, in collaboration with River Architects, worked closely with a diverse stakeholder group, including people from the local healthcare industry, school system, autism foundation, business community, and parents of kids with autism and special needs. Their input was incredibly valuable, their passion for the project infectious, and we are forever humbled by their steadfast commitment to the project.

We’re looking forward to doing more award-winning work in Wisconsin!

Meet Jodi Refsland, lover of the outdoors, passionate about ecological and sustainable design, and DF/’s Wisconsin Practice Leader of our new Wisconsin office.

Originally from the area, Jodi has returned to central Wisconsin to support and grow our clients, collaborators, and communities. She’s excited to connect with and engage communities to design landscapes that create a strong sense of place and foster opportunities to connect people with the environment. Jodi has recently completed work on public parks and playgrounds in Wisconsin and brings project experience in civic and cultural landscapes, work environments, academic, master planning, and ecological restoration. If you’re interested to learn more about Jodi’s experience and DF/’s expansion, visit us at https://www.damonfarber.com/portfolio-1-1

We wish you peace, joy, and happiness in the new year.

We’re growing in 2023 and we’re excited to share with you how. Stay tuned in the coming days for the news!

Yes, believe it or not we have three members on the ASLA-MN board. Jordan van der Hagen has been serving as Co-Director of Programming since 2021 and will continue his term through 2023. What he enjoys most about his position is building a better-connected community of landscape architects through planning and promoting organizational events.

Joining Rachel in the ALSA-MN office is Brit Erenler as Co-Director of Education and Professional Development. She’s excited to jump into the role to facilitate knowledge sharing within the landscape architecture community as well as the greater public, education institutions and adjacent disciplines. We can’t wait to follow along!

POAM (President of ASLA-MN) in the house! We’re ecstatic to announce the newest ASLA-MN President-Elect is none other than our own, Rachel Blaseg. She’s plenty qualified as she’s been in the industry for 15 years; 10 of which have been spent with Damon Farber. When asked what she’s most excited to accomplish, Rachel noted “I look forward to collaborating with a great group of landscape architecture professionals to support our mission and continue fostering our community. In addition to building relationships and learning what it takes to lead ASLA-MN forward, I’m excited for Minnesota to host the national ASLA conference in October 2023”. Please join us in congratulating Rachel!

We are excited about the completion of the Hennepin County North Regional Library renovation project! Located at the crossroads of the Folwell, McKinley, Jordan, and Hawthorne Neighborhoods in Minneapolis, this library plays an expanded role as an active, urban community center. The renovation maximizes the potential of several outdoor spaces; design that was inspired by community input. Included in the project is a multi-age Reading Garden, a peaceful space to encourage outdoor use and collaborative work. The Children’s Garden invites play and encourages balance through a STEM-inspired installation of physical challenges on engraved granite steppers. We collaborated with local artists from Juxtaposition Arts to provide site-specific paving and fence patterns that align with the library’s interior graphics. Find more information and images on our website:

https://www.damonfarber.com/projects/North-Regional-Library

Hennepin County Library

Finance & Commerce recently featured a DF project, Loring Green East, which is a landmark condominium in Minneapolis’ Loring Park neighborhood. It features a design solution that enhanced the tower’s exterior roof deck with new plantings, patio areas, lighting, fire features, waterproofing, and substructure soil engineering. The article speaks to the importance of green space for not only the environment, but also for its people.

Team:
Encompass, Inc.

Featured is Upfit Shade Structure

Check out the article and a few renderings below:
https://finance-commerce.com/2022/07/the-appeal-of-green-space/

We’re thrilled to announce that the City of Blaine has approved the Northtown District Vision Plan, a long-range plan that will guide decision-making, investments, and priorities for transforming the Northtown Mall and surrounding retail district into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood. The evolution of the Northtown District from a predominantly retail environment to a more walkable and bikeable, fine-grained mix of uses, served by public transportation and seamlessly integrating sustainable principles into its design, can become a model for adaptive reuse in a quickly evolving world.

At the time of its grand opening in October 1972, the Northtown Mall was the third largest shopping center in the Twin Cities. The retail market, however, has changed since the heyday of the 1970’s. For a variety of reasons, including competition from e-commerce, discount stores, and shifting consumer spending patterns, shopping activity at auto-oriented malls has declined dramatically. For the City of Blaine, it became imperative to act now to reimagine the mall area as a more diverse and inviting mixed-use place that appeals to and attracts people from all walks of life to come to live, work, recreate, shop, and gather.

We were honored to lead the planning effort with the City of Blaine, landowners, public agencies, and the community at large to craft a forward-thinking vision for the future of the Northtown District.

Project Partners: and .inc

Visualizations for the Terraces at a premier suburban office park. ⁠
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Details at the drop-in center and headquarters⁠.
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We have been very fortunate to have as an intern over this past year! Spencer has been instrumental in our design visualization and documentation processes, while continually demonstrating a strong work ethic and willingness to learn new things. We all wish you well and are excited to see what’s next for you! ⁠
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Swipe to see some of Spencer’s favorite graphics from the year.⁠
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We're excited to see this vision for a premier suburban office park take shape!⁠
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Going above and beyond the typical office landscape, the proposed design includes spaces to work and have meetings, recreational amenities, spaces for gathering in ⁠larger groups, and opportunities to be alone and relax. The ecological function of the site will also be improved with restoration to the water body and additional stormwater infrastructure. ⁠
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Design process for the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's facility. Project partners include and ! Full project profile on our website -> link in bio
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Studies for a creekside rest area in Hopkins. ⁠
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Winter sunrise at Water Works last week⁠ 🙌
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Photos by