"Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm."
- John Muir
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Growth
Celebrating Growth + Achievement
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Last year we celebrated our 35th year in business. Over the last three and a half decades, we have enjoyed continued growth and have built a legacy for Clark Condon. Our passion for landscape architecture and great design is inspired by the world around us, great clients and consultants, and the amazing people that make up our firm.
Clark Condon will continue advancing the firm as a leader in our industry, increasing our knowledge base, and building upon our tenacity for design excellence. The leadership team comprised of Sheila Condon, Jason Miller, Elizabeth Gilbert, Mary Keilers, and Andrew Konyha are continuing our mission, as well as leading our internal design teams, and building the next generation of leaders. They each have planted roots within the firm over the course of their careers, and have honed their unique skillsets toward future success.
Through hard work, forward-thinking, and building client relationships, we are positioned to push Clark Condon forward into the next 35 years.
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Scott Slagle Retiring after 31 Years with Clark Condon
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Scott Slagle joined Clark Condon in 1990, just five years after the firm was established. From early on, he was entrenched in the process and was instrumental on numerous projects across the region, including Cinco Ranch Beach Club, Riverpark development in Sugar Land, Hilton Americas, and the Galveston Seawall. Scott has maintained our consistency and efficiency on drawings and has mentored staff on conducting thorough reviews. An avid fisherman and craftsman, Scott is looking forward to having more time to devote to his hobbies and his family. He will be greatly missed by the Clark Condon family.
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Celebrate
Celebrating Achievement
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Jason Buckley Promoted to Senior Associate
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Jason Buckley has been promoted to a Senior Associate. He has been with the firm since graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013. His interest in construction systems, fabrication, and horticulture has influenced his way of designing projects from the details up and thinking about how materials and forms affect the feeling of a space.
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Houston-Galveston Area Council Parks and Natural Area Awards
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Congratulations to three of our clients for being selected for recognition in the Houston-Galveston Area Council's annual Parks and Natural Areas Award Program! The winners were honored in an online celebration on February 5, 2021. H-GAC established the Parks and Natural Areas awards program in 2006 to highlight best practices and innovative approaches to parks planning and implementation.
H-GAC honors projects in the categories of Projects Over $500,000, Projects Under $500,000, Planning Process, and Policy Tools. Projects recognized by this awards program are selected by a panel of expert judges and industry professionals. Read more about the projects here.
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Houston Center
The long-awaited completion of Houston Center is finally here! Clark Condon worked with Brookfield Properties, Gensler, and the design team to reimagine Houston Center into a new, vibrant destination in the heart of downtown. The four-building, mixed-use complex will feature numerous amenities, including restaurants, retail, and ample greenspace. The renovation will create a more walkable and inviting space to provide a welcoming, connected, and people-focused environment. The design team approached this project with the mindset of creating a new neighborhood within downtown.
A completely new arrival sequence sets the tone for the project and offers a seamless connection from the street-level to the building. The new central plaza features a digital water wall, flexible entertainment space, and an iconic spiral staircase that leads to landscaped terraces above. A sky deck offers an outdoor co-working space to foster collaboration and extends the traditional working environment into a natural setting. This new complex, through greenspace and amenities, will change the way people experience downtown and inspire a new way of thinking about development in the area.
You can read more about the project here.
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In the Dirt
Are you ever curious about the behind-the-scenes details of a project? Look no more! We dive into the complexities of our projects to give you an in-depth look at things from our perspective.
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Spotlight // Kolter Elementary with project manager, Elizabeth Gilbert
Houston, Texas
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Creating an Educational "Grassroom"
The Meyerland community of southwest Houston has been hard hit in recent years by flooding with many families left rebuilding their homes multiple times. Then came the unimaginable historic flooding from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 that impacted so many in the Houston region and once again flooded Meyerland. The severe flooding overwhelmed Jennie Katherine Kolter Elementary School with more than 4 feet of water across the campus including their award-winning outdoor learning area.
Kolter Elementary was built in 1960 and has been a pillar of the Meyerland community and southwest Houston. In 2003 they established a vegetable garden, pond habitat, and coastal prairie environment, that has become a tremendous benefit to the students’ lesson enrichment. Each year, students at various grade levels were able to utilize these outdoor assets to go outside the traditional classroom, grow their own food in the vegetable garden, and discuss life-long healthy eating habits. The coastal prairie environment enabled children to explore how the land looked in their neighborhood before human development, and the pond provided realistic examples of life cycles, water cycles, and ecosystems.
This outdoor classroom is championed by a devoted group of parent volunteers who work with the teachers and students of Kolter to plant, maintain, and provide these opportunities for outdoor learning. The school was lost to Hurricane Harvey and had to be demolished and rebuilt. During the 3 years it took for the reconstruction, the students were displaced to a temporary campus without their beloved garden. The parent volunteers worked to develop a small, temporary garden so the students did not also lose their many important traditions and culture established by the garden.
With the reconstruction budget tightly stretched, there was no funding to reestablish the garden which was as unsalvageable as the school. Kolter’s Parent/Teacher Organization (PTO) recognized how important the garden was to Kolter and set out to ensure that the school would reopen with an even better version of the garden and approached Clark Condon to help them with plans for “The Grassroom."
Inspired by the community’s dedication to preserving this connection with nature and reestablishing the interactive education space, Clark Condon was happy to work with Kolter on this endeavor. Working with the facility and parents, the space was reimagined and designed to provide a vegetable garden with raised planting beds, coastal prairie garden, pond, butterfly garden, orchard, and an outdoor classroom. Materials were selected to be durable and easily maintained by the community volunteers. With the design set, the PTO was able to fundraise to make The Grassroom a reality.
Phase 1 of The Grassroom was completed and opened along with the new campus in fall of 2020. The students now had a vegetable garden, coastal prairie garden, orchard and outdoor class space. Fruit trees for the orchard were donated by the local non-profit group, Trees for Houston. Phase 2 is currently under construction and will open in early 2021, which includes the pond and butterfly garden.
The Grassroom is a testament to the resiliency and enduring spirit of the community; A community that has struggled to overcome, and will rebuild stronger than ever before. Clark Condon is proud to be a member of this community. We look forward to seeing The Grassroom at full completion and thriving for years to come.
This project was recently published in the March issue of Landscape Architect and Specifier News.
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Digging Deeper
We are introducing case studies as a way to dive into the details of design and our process for the project. Click the picture below to read more on our website.
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Transforming Stormwater Management into an Amenity | Josey Lake Park
Josey Lake Park connects users to nature, education, culture, and recreation while serving as a highly functional, aesthetic, and sustainable stormwater detention system. Click here to read more.
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Resources
Our resources page is full of technical information about our process, project development, case studies, and now white papers. These white papers are an opportunity to share our expertise about complex topics that are critical to project success.
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Specifying Planting Soils in Urban Conditions
Soil is essential to the growth and vitality of plants, as failure of plant material can often be linked to the landscape soils. Specifying the appropriate soil is critical to plant health and long-term maintenance of urban landscapes. Whether amending existing soils or importing soil blends, determining the correct soil mix begins with understanding the existing conditions and how those conditions will be impacted both by the construction process and the project's final design. We will discuss what that process looks like in this article.
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