For immediate release: June
23, 2005
Design Workshop
announces appointment of
2005 Associates and Principals
Ten outstanding designers from Design Workshop’s
nine offices in the United States and Latin America were recently
named Associates or Principals in the firm’s annual selection
of its next generation of leaders. Three were named in the firm’s
largest office in Denver, two in one of its fastest-growing
offices in Asheville, North Carolina, and one each from its
Aspen, Salt Lake City, Tahoe, Phoenix and Santa Fe offices.
“There is always great benefit to taking
inventory of where one has been and projecting a path into the
future,” says Todd Johnson of Denver, one of the firm’s
six shareholders, of the new appointments. “The associate
and principal interviews offered the shareholders a glimpse
of our bright promise.”
The highest honor went to Greg Witherspoon of
the Santa Fe office, who was named a Principal. A landscape
architect in the New Mexico office for seven years, Witherspoon
studied environmental design and engineering and received master’s
degrees in both landscape architecture and regional and city
planning from the University of Oklahoma. He has been instrumental
in work at all scales in the new community of Rancho Viejo south
of Santa Fe, helping create a water-wise community that fits
a production homebuilder’s needs.
Associates named in the Denver office were Jerod
Costner, Geoff Gerring and Allyson Mendenhall. Costner, who
earned his bachelor’s degree at Oklahoma State University,
has worked extensively in international resort planning and
waterfront development. Gerring earned his bachelor’s
from Purdue University and specializes in urban design and planning.
Allyson Mendenhall earned both her bachelor’s and master’s
degrees from Harvard University and worked for Thomas Balsley
Associates in New York before coming to Design Workshop, where
she focuses on urban public open space.
Bret Frk (spelling correct) and Grant Meacci
were named Associates in the Asheville office. Frk graduated
from the University of Cincinnati and worked first in Denver,
before moving east to help found the North Carolina office.
He concentrates on smart growth and sustainable community design
and planning. Meacci, who earned his bachelor’s from North
Carolina State University and his master’s in landscape
architecture from Cornell University, focuses on community development
and campus planning.
The four other Associates are Maria Paola Cagnina
(Phoenix), Lindy Hulton-Larson (Tahoe), David Nicholas (Salt
Lake City) and Steven Spears (Aspen). Cagnina earned her bachelor’s
degree in architecture at the University of Cordoba in Argentina
and specializes in urban design. Hulton-Larson, who earned her
bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of New
South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and was an apprentice at the
Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture in 2001, focuses on
public domain design. Nicholas, who is operations manager in
the Salt Lake office, earned his bachelor’s from Arizona
State University and concentrates on parks, open space and recreation
planning and design. Spears, who earned his landscape architecture
degree from Ball State University and who has won national awards,
focuses on public- and private-sector mountain community projects.
