Kobayashi and Associates has held steady in the last year at five staff members, with projects in Seattle and the Pacific Rim. “The challenge is to face the current world condition,” said Principal Koichi Kobayashi.

Primary markets include urban design for transportation corridors, institutions and parks. “Currently we are looking at situations involving ethnic-based and historical gardens,” he said.

Projects:

• Martin Luther King Way Corridor for Sound Transit includes streetscape, stations, station plazas, park lets and pedestrian linkage. Arai/Jackson is the project architect, and design is now 99 percent complete.

• Interstate 90 Seattle Landscape Master Design is staged over seven years, and includes site planning, grading, drainage, paving, planting and irrigation between Lake Washington and Fourth Avenue South, west of Seahawks Stadium.

• Rainier Vista Community redevelopment includes over 800 dwelling units and mixed-use on an 80-acre site. The plan will steer the project for the next four years of redevelopment.

• State Route 509 visual study will assess viewer sensitivity along existing features and areas that contribute to visual quality, including Des Moines and Barnes creeks, the existing Tyee Valley Golf Course and distant landscape features.

• Kita Osaka New Town Urban Design Plan and Ibarki District Development Plan, for the Japan Urban Development Corporation & Sekisui Co., is a new town with a planned population of 50,000 people, including rail and monorail.

• Washington Park Arboretum Japanese Garden Overview prepares the way for an updated concept plan for the Seattle Japanese Garden at the University of Washington Arboretum. Goals include installing elements originally included in Juki Iida’s 1959 plan.