This year, Hough Beck & Baird will emphasize the transportation, community development and environmental enhancement market areas. The 11-person firm had gross revenues last year of about $1 million.

“Our staff size has remained about the same over the past year; however, we do expect to interview one or two additional people for employment by the end of this year,” said principal Colie Hough-Beck.

Last year, HB&B completed the construction for the Park at Bothell Landing and the Sea-Tac International Airport parking garage expansion. The company is now completing design phases for several transportation projects that started last year, such as the third phase of International Boulevard in SeaTac, State Avenue in Marysville and SR-527 roadway in Everett. All emphasize pedestrian access and visual amenities.

Recognizing that economic growth this year may not be as steep as last, HB&B expects to reach beyond the boundaries of the region to explore other opportunities. The firm is looking forward to continued work at Sea-Tac International Airport, the completion of the Longfellow Creek restoration in West Seattle and the development of the Russell Street corridor in Missoula, Mont. HB&B will also be involved with the design of the city of Des Moines Sports Park as well as the city of Marysville Strawberry Fields Athletic Park. Both projects call for an environmentally sensitive design approach to meet difficult site conditions.

In the future, HB&B will be searching for more creative approaches to the increasing array of urban planning and design challenges. To become more familiar with urban lighting opportunities, Hough-Beck and associate Juliet Vong recently toured the cities of London and Berlin to study lighting in diverse urban settings.

“We believe that landscape architecture should be an integral part of the planning and design process; therefore, we have challenged ourselves to nurture this philosophy through our urban and mixed-use projects,” said Hough-Beck.