For immediate release: May 23, 2006

Design Workshop honored with Urban Land Institute

award for Mesa Arts Center

MESA, AZ — Design Workshop has been honored by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) with the prestigious Award of Excellence in the Americas, one of only 10 developments in North America to be named in its 2006 round of awards. The winning project is the Mesa Arts Center near Phoenix, on which the firm collaborated with renowned landscape architect Martha Schwartz.

The award was given earlier this month at the Institute’s annual Spring Council Meeting, held this year in Salt Lake City. Chuck Ware, one of the designers on the project and a principal in Design Workshop’s Salt Lake City office, was present for the award. The criteria for the awards include leadership, contribution to the community, innovations, public/private partnership, environmental protection and enhancement, response to societal needs, and financial success.

“This project has been a great collaboration,” says Ware, “both between multiple disciplines and between two landscape architectural firms that respect one another's talents. It is a model project for this desert community, where comfortable public spaces, celebration of the arts and a strong commitment on the City's part make for a great destination, for both theater patrons and the public as a whole.”

Design Workshop was responsible for landscape architectural design collaboration with the office of Martha Schwartz, as well as detailed design and construction documentation and construction observation for the project. In a video presentation on the project during the awards ceremony, ULI singled out the Design Workshop’s execution of high-quality public space. Currently, the firm is at work on projects across the United States as well as in Mexico and Puerto Rico.

Founded in 1969, Design Workshop is an urban design, community planning and landscape architecture firm that practices sustainable design and planning on sites ranging from urban infill, parks and open space to brownfield redevelopment and resorts. The firm has seven offices in the United States and has received more than 120 awards for design and planning.