This is an exciting time to be a landscape architect in the city of Seattle. There is a window of opportunity to invest in long-term quality downtown with the convergence of multiple major infrastructure projects and the mayor’s priorities for urban reforestation and water quality improvements,” said Debra Guenther, landscape architect and senior associate at the firm.

Mithun is seeing increased opportunities in higher and private education, public infrastructure, new community planning and urban housing work while the private sector assesses the strengths of the marketplace, according to Guenther. “It’s increasingly clear that ‘green’ is becoming the base standard, rather than a unique feature, across a wide spectrum of project types,” she said.

The 130-person Mithun staff has remained steady after doubling in size between 1997 and 1999, and there are now five in the landscape group.

Projects:

• Nordheim Court, sets an urban precedent in University of Washington student housing with “brownstone” stoops, a promenade and fingers of outdoor space designed to promote neighborhoods within the community.

• Teton Science School in Jackson, Wyo., is a campus for one of the nation’s original science-based environmental education schools.

• Yesler Community Center, a project for the Seattle Parks Department, is a civic building on an urban hilltop. While connecting the community, it celebrates rainwater collection and provides multiple ways to experience the hill.

• High Point is a Hope VI housing community in West Seattle for the Seattle Housing Authority. Mithun’s landscape architecture team is collaborating with Nakano Associates to plan and design key parks in the neighborhood, including a stormwater management park.

• Concordia University expansion in Portland includes a new library. Mithun completed the master plan for the institution and is now providing architecture and landscape architecture services.

• Riverscape, for Ralston Investments, consists of four blocks of townhouses along the public waterfront of the Willamette River in Portland. The landscape design scheme includes a new urban waterfront promenade.