President: Colie Hough Beck
Size of firm: 11
Year founded: 1990
Annual revenues: approximately $1 million
Specialties: Urban design, streetscapes, recreation, waterfront design, transportation design, grant assistance

Hough Beck & Baird has maintained its size for the last five years. "We’re being selective and maintaining a high level of service to our clients," said president Colie Hough Beck. "We could have easily tripled the size of the staff last summer, but decided not to."

More and more of the firm’s projects are located within high density urban corridors, she said.

The firm is now involved in the Rainier Valley segment of regional light rail planning. Transportation corridors are being reclaimed as multi-modal and pedestrian spaces. "Every square inch counts," she said.

Hough Beck & Baird is also busy with recreation and reclamation projects, including the restoration of Longfellow Creek. These days, restoration projects are likely to include a balance between habitat and public access. "We’ve been incorporating recreation in to all projects," she said. "When people are not at work, they’re playing."

Urban design and urban renewal projects for small communities like Marysville have also been important to the firm in the last year. In Marysville, the firm designed a waterfront park and a streetscape for the center of town, as well as a park and ride at the north end of town. The firm also worked on a new outdoor amphitheater on the Sammamish River for city of Bothell.

Always, there is a demand for large gathering spaces not easily classified as recreational, said Hough Beck. They are "flex spaces," informal areas for brown bags or arts events. This year, the firm completed design of open spaces at Snoqualmie Ridge and continued work on Issaquah Highlands.

Hough Beck & Baird is also involved in landscape standards and writing land use ordinances for communities, and is currently writing standards for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for the Port of Seattle.