Planning

Designing better futures.

We heal cities.

What's missing? What's disconnected? How do we heal what's broken and correct what's off-course? By observing gaps between buildings and streets, between people’s expectations and experiences, between the first and the last mile of a journey, we learn what cities need to become healthy. Through researching, testing, and phasing, we discover how sites can better fit into cities to become whole—self-sufficient yet interconnected. We see big pictures to form stronger connections between people, communities, and our built environments.

We work systems and layers.

Vibrant and human-centered cities are nodes of lively systems, all layered atop one another: transportation, food, socioeconomic, cultural, ecological, technological. Our ability to see, collect, and learn from these flows and functions, this observable data, lets us refine existing systems and design new ones. All in service of bringing authentically human-scale benefits back into our cities. Making them safer, culturally rich, equitable, beautiful.

We set opportunities free.

Design can fundamentally shift people's behaviors and open up possibilities. We gather insights about how people live, how sites operate, how communities work, and how past design solutions can solve present complexities. We prepare cities for the future by advocating for dynamic behaviors, speaking up for silent ecologies, refocusing systems on people—all people, without barriers—and the connections between us.

We leave room for placemakers.

Our urban design holds intentional room for the people who live in, love, and influence the places we work. We anticipate this future placemaking, the surprising expressions of city life that fill niches in the urban fabric, by deliberately leaving room for opportunity and creativity. Cities flourish when passionate citizens roll up their sleeves, gather together, and do the hard work of grassroots placemaking. We save space for the people—those here now, those yet to arrive.

The Westgate Framework is our plan to transform a 34 acre site north of Beaverton’s historic downtown into a pedestrian-centered, transit-connected neighborhood. We combined public transit-oriented development (TOD) design with principles of placemaking, walkability, and wayfinding to create a distinct mixed-use community. Aligned with the MAX light rail, Westgate strengthens the area transit connections and adds to the vitality of the nearby Beaverton Round with housing, employment opportunities, and shopping amenities.

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