Jones & Jones
Specialty: Architecture, landscape architecture, planning
Management: Principals Ilze Jones, Grant Jones, Johnpaul Jones, Mario Campos, Chris Overdorf, David Matthews
Founded: 1969
Headquarters: Seattle
Current projects: Vancouver Land Bridge reconnecting Fort Vancouver to the Columbia River waterfront; Internment Memorial on Bainbridge Island; Mount Baker Ridge Viewpoint in Seattle
Photo courtesy of Jones & Jones
A forested path returns from the future site of the Internment Memorial planned for Bainbridge Island. Jones & Jones is working on the designs.
|
As the country looks to expand its use of energy sources, Jones & Jones is visualizing ways to make the needed transmission lines, windmills and the like mesh with nature.
Marketing director Tom Carlson said the firm can assess routes for the infrastructure so it is in harmony with the natural surroundings. The assessment involves determining which landscapes are most worth preserving and how the infrastructure will least negatively impact the most valuable parts of the landscape.
No layoffs
Despite the poor economy, Jones & Jones has had no layoffs and is busy with a diverse practice that includes niche areas, said Carlson. Its work includes a fairly large project — a wildlife park and botanical garden in the United Arab Emirates.
The sour economy, however, has meant that some Jones & Jones clients are hiring it to do early-stage planning — early concepts, conceptual design — but holding off on having it design projects all the way through, Carlson said.
“We’re looking more at doing planning work as opposed to strict design,” he said. “People who’ve been around here 30 years have seen this happen in recessions.”
Wildlife crossings
The firm designs everything from zoos to roads. Locally, it recently completed a land bridge in Vancouver which has native artwork and interpretive panels about the history of the site.
In another project, Jones & Jones redesigned Highway 93 through the Flathead Indian Reservation, a 55-mile stretch from Missoula, Mont., to Flathead Lake. The road had been slated to be expanded to a four-lane highway in the late 1990s, but that was held up in litigation, with lots of local opposition, primarily from tribes, Carlson said. Jones & Jones designed 45 wildlife crossings for the project, from small box culverts for painted turtles and trout, to vegetated overpasses for large mammals, such as grizzly bears and moose.