Swift & Company continues to focus on design and planning, responsive to the social needs and landscape ecology of the circumstance. The firm is turning 20 this year.

Current projects including the Grand Tetons National Park Visitor Center; housing for homeless families; five Seattle libraries; the Seattle Civic Center with Gustufson Partners; the award-winning Maple Valley Library; and the Whatcom Community College Student Center.

Swift & Company is beginning the Martha Lake Airport Park Master Plan in Snohomish County, a new park in Bellevue, the Maple Valley Legacy Project and the central quadrangle for Grays Harbor College. Construction continues at Holly Park, University Prep and construction on Seattle City Hall and the civic center has begun.

The firm has remained stable in size at six. Fees and construction volume have increased significantly, with greater volume in planning studies and long planned projects in construction. Volume appears to be stable. Business is good despite the economic downturn. This is attributed to a broad client base which is financially positioned to reduce the impact of a recession.

“We are seeing the Growth Management Act sow fruit in the form of capable community members who act on the vision of managed growth at all levels,” said principal Barbara Swift. “During a period when dollars are tight, we are still seeing people figure out how to do something extraordinary. Communities are vigorously struggling with alternatives to suburban growth.”

She decries the initiative process and suggests that the state “look to California for a history lesson on infrastructure, environmental and community damage. This is a disturbing trend.”