CULTIVATING THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Landscape Architecture at Ayers Saint Gross
INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRM 2 INTRODUCTION TO LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE 4 STEWARDSHIP 6 LIVING-LEARNING LANDSCAPE 18 PLACEMAKING 26 2
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Landscape Architecture is the synthesis of
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Introduction to the Firm Ayers Saint Gross is an employee-owned design firm with expertise in architecture, planning, landscape architecture, space analytics, interiors, and graphic design. We are unique in that all of our work is for mission-driven clients such as colleges, universities, and cultural institutions. Since the founding of our practice in 1912, Ayers Saint Gross has built a reputation for designing environments of enduring value. Our design is driven by a critical and analytical discourse, a respect for past wisdom, a mind to future potential, and a belief that we have an obligation to leave places better than we found them.
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FO UND E D
F IR M PH ILO SO PH Y
1912
All of our work is for mission-driven clients.
FI R M P HI LOS O P H Y
“ We engage people and places to create designs that enrich the world.” S TA FF
85% 10% 5% Higher Education
Cultural Institutions
K-12 and Private Sector
IN TER N ATIO N AL R EACH
170 72% Professional Staff Members
of our Staff Members are LEED Accredited
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Landscape Architecture Landscapes play a critical role in defining the built environment, influencing both the first impression and long-term success of a space. Well-designed landscapes connect people with their communities. Ayers Saint Gross specializes in the design of the natural environment, seamlessly integrating architecture and site. Guided by environmental stewardship, we design spaces for cities, campuses, and cultural institutions, both beautiful and functional. Working in collaboration with our architecture, planning, landscape architecture, space analytics, interiors, and graphic design experts, we serve our clients by expressing their values through carefully conceived and wellexecuted landscape spaces.
Inter-Lab Collaboration Hub Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory Laurel, Maryland 4
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Stewardship Good stewardship of the land is vital to a resilient design. Landscapes are richly layered living systems, requiring innovative solutions to ecological problems and adaptive response in a world of constant change. Informed by evidence-based design, sustainable landscapes provide diverse habitats and enduring environmental performance. By making natural processes visible and drawing inspiration from local context, our designed landscapes teach about natural systems and their conservation. We pursue sustainability from design conception to long-term maintenance in order to ensure the longevity of a design.
Environmental Campus Landscape Plan College of Charleston Charleston, South Carolina
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Waterfront Campus Plan National Aquarium Baltimore, Maryland Reimagined as an ecologically restorative landscape, the National Aquarium’s campus revitalization project sets a precedent for waterfront development in urban sites in the face of sea level rise. The proposed design challenges existing urban waterfront models to create a more compelling civic space and thriving habitat in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The project will shift the focus of the Aquarium’s campus from land to water, creating an immersive experience through environmental education, art, and recreation that inspires conservation action. The design incorporates best practices for waterfront development, including floating wetlands, aquatic vegetation shelves, aeration mechanisms, and tidal marsh plantings.
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Stormwater Management & Landscape Master Plan Rowan University Glassboro, New Jersey Biohabitats, Ayers Saint Gross, and Urban Engineers teamed on this project to develop a stormwater and landscape management master plan to guide the creation of sustainable, functional campus landscapes that integrate stormwater management, open spaces, and connectivity. The team used a watershed-based approach to analyze the campus, dividing the campus into catchment areas. Within each area, we evaluated the interrelationships and ecologies of open spaces; performed hydrologic analyses to determine potential impacts on current, ongoing, and future development five-, 10- and 100-year storms; and examined overall campus connectivity.
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West Covington Park National Aquarium Baltimore, Maryland P LA N TI N G + RE FORE S TATI ON
This public park on Baltimore’s waterfront supports the National Aquarium’s mission to increase awareness about the impact that our actions have on plant and animal communities in the Chesapeake watershed. Ayers Saint Gross landscape architects and graphic designers transformed the 12.2-acre brownfield into a conservation demonstration park featuring habitats for migratory birds and native insect populations, a recreational pier, a new gateway, and educational signage, and a network of trails. The site design embraces sustainable strategies for stormwater, remediation of brownfield conditions, and restoration of habitat.
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Environmental Campus Landscape Plan College of Charleston Charleston, South Carolina This 800-acre campus on the banks of the Stono River is distinguished by its diverse landscapes of grassy marshes, lush woodlands, upland meadows and rows of historic oak trees. A four-mile nature trail was developed as part of a master plan for the future development of educational and research facilities on the property. This accessible pedestrian network reveals the beauty of the scenery while providing interpretive signage at various way stations to inform visitors about the history and ecology of this former plantation.
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Environmental Campus Landscape Plan College of Charleston Charleston, South Carolina
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Living-Learning Landscapes have the power to advance an academic goals. Traditionally, campus landscapes were used as places for formal and informal convocation. Campus landscapes today must be high performing and actively serve the learning communities that occupy them. They provide social hubs for interactive learning outside of the classroom and serve as outdoor laboratories with a wealth of data for academic research.
Classes on East Quad Lawn DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana
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Science & Engineering Courtyard University of Delaware Newark, Delaware The landscape design for this project creates thresholds into the new precinct, while providing gathering spaces in the spirit of interdisciplinary collaboration. The project perimeter responds to the adjacent campus context, while an inner courtyard reflects the dynamism of the architecture. A plaza provides exterior gathering space for students and formal events. The landscape expresses stormwater management best practices through runnels, pre-treatment planters, and bio-retention plantings.
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School of Nursing Courtyard Duke University Durham, North Carolina The most striking feature of the Duke School of Nursing’s project site is its vigorous tree canopy. Respecting the wooded area was central to our design. Two curved stone seat walls bracket the terrace and hold the grade to preserve existing trees. Walkways approach the terrace weaving through the trees from three sides. The south building entry is marked by two tiers of stone seat walls on either side of a grand stair. Landscape strategies enhance sustainability by reducing site disturbance, protecting trees, introducing irrigation systems, reducing development footprint, and utilizing native plant materials.
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Laird Campus Residential Complex Landscapes University of Delaware Newark, Delaware The University of Delaware’s Laird Campus is a 16-acre residential precinct. In a phased implementation, the University removed outdated student housing, replacing it with new and reconfigured open space. The new campus landscapes are concentrated along a central spine connected to the buildings by plazas. Overlooks emphasize the connection to nature. The landscape palette of the central campus extends to this new development with brick walkways and open green spaces framed by rows of canopy trees.
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Placemaking Landscapes that successfully engage users have the power to transform lives. Great landscapes strengthen one’s emotional connections to place, community and nature. Placemaking through landscape design distills the character of a setting and activates it through strategic programming. Capitalizing on a site’s assets and latent potential, great design transforms spaces into iconic places that speak to the identity of an institution.
Bluestone Garden University of Scranton Scranton, Pennsylvania
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Campus Landscape Improvements University of Scranton Scranton, Pennsylvania The University of Scranton improved its campus by rehabilitating its core landscape and strengthening visual connections with its surroundings. The campus core, once interrupted by public roads, is now a pedestrian precinct with accommodation for emergency and service vehicles only. Masonry piers clearly mark primary and secondary entrances to campus. A new streetscape along Mulberry Street communicates the University’s commitment to the city and develops a stronger college town retail zone. A new campus-wide signage system augments these improvements.
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Inner Harbor 2.0 Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore Baltimore, Maryland Ayers Saint Gross, in collaboration with the Mayor’s office, the Department of Planning, the Waterfront Partnership and the Greater Baltimore Committee, designed a plan to revitalize civic landscapes of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. These landscapes, including the promenade and Rash Field, are nearly thirty years old and showing signs of age. The master plan incorporates ideas from an online survey of residents who stressed the importance of diverse attractions for all ages, ranging from more shaded environments to better access to public facilities. Other recommendations were to improve the quality and health of the water itself with more access to waterside education and activities.
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New Landscapes & Road Realignment Howard Community College Howard County, Maryland After completing the campus master plan, Howard Community College recognized the importance of landscape for creating a strong campus identity, and directed Ayers Saint Gross to create a landscape master plan that strikes a balance between meeting vehicular demands and creating a high-quality campus environment for pedestrians. Ayers Saint Gross also completed the implementation, including new campus quadrangles, the Health Sciences Courtyard, and an improved vehicular entrance on the north end of campus. The site’s stormwater management system is seamlessly integrated into the new landscapes as micro-bioretention basins, which are planted with a subdued palette of native plants and ornamental grasses.
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Quad Renovation Lafayette College Easton, Pennsylvania Lafayette College sought to transform the quad area by reinforcing the pedestrian-oriented nature of the campus, and by inserting landscapes which respond to the College’s historic and architectural context. Quad Drive, the major road circumventing the area, was removed to strengthen the connection between the quad and the residential areas beyond. The vehicular pavement was replaced to create an open lawn and commemorative plaza. The craft of the historic masonry structures is reflected in the material design of the pathways, consisting of brick with cut bluestone borders for paths and plaza. An allÊe of Sugar Maples, with a central arrival and drop-off area, enhance the formal entrance.
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Campus Transformation Lafayette College Easton, Pennsylvania
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Image by Chuck Zovko, Courtesy of Lafayette College
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Select Clients 16Tech Community Corporation Calvin College Carnegie Mellon University Catholic University of America Clemson University College at Brockport College of Charleston DePauw University Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Duke University Emory University Fairfield University Frostburg State University Georgetown University George Washington University Goucher College Grinnell College Harvard University Hobart & William Smith Howard Community College Johns Hopkins Health System Johns Hopkins University Lafayette College Mount Vernon Ladies Association/NLSGW National Aquarium in Baltimore
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Nemours Mansions & Gardens Northern Arizona University Notre Dame University Parks & People Baltimore Rowan University Smithsonian Institution Towson University University of Delaware University of Maryland U Mass University of Miami UMD Shady Grove University of North Carolina University of North Carolina Greensboro Old Dominion University SI-SERC SUNY at Oneonta University of Rochester University of Scranton University of South Carolina University of Virginia Virginia Commonwealth University Washington College Waterfront Partnership Baltimore Westminster Theological Seminary
SEE SOMETHING YOU LIKE? Ayers Saint Gross is always on the look out for new and interesting collaborations. PLEASE CONTACT: Jonathan Ceci, Principal phone 410 347 8500 email jceci@asg-architects.com
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BALT IMORE 1040 Hull Street Suite 100 Baltimore, MD 21230 WASHINGT ON D. C. 1100 First Street, NE Suite 800 Washington, DC 20002 TEMPE 60 E. Rio Salado Pkwy. Suite 701 Tempe, AZ 85281 An employee-owned design firm.
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