WHO WE ARE
Our Story
Twenty years ago, we started this practice with a dream to approach design and planning, specifically for rural and remote locations, from a community-inclusive and engaged perspective.
As landscape architects, planners, and designers it was the only way we could address the complexity of rural communities, their tremendous appeal in attractions and destinations, and the diverse, interconnected natural and human-made ecologies we call home, visit, and many idealize.
That dream has brought us to the many wonderful places, many we only had learned of through our work, and to the many individuals we have met along the way in these communities and within our own rural studio office in Belwood, Ontario:
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community champions, municipal councils and staff, economic and tourism developers, recreation and leisure managers, business improvement areas, all naturally working together;
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architects, planners, and engineering professionals from all ends of Canada;
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students and young interns learning from this experience – while drawing us forward.
For the most part, we work in the medium of the built and natural environments driven by a belief that we have been given an incredible gift in our ability to enhance place in rural areas, and an opportunity to get it right – to create environments where people want to be, where communities can prosper and thrive, to celebrate and develop legacy, and ensure their resiliency. This work is driven by our uniquely “rural community” commitment derived from research into place, respect and appreciation for community and its culture and “what makes them great”, the preservation of the best in the countryside and small town, and the application of thorough, engaged design/planning.