AHBL, an 80-person multi-disciplinary design firm based in Tacoma, opened an office in Seattle last fall. The landscape group has grown from four to seven staff members in the last year, with revenues projected at $500,000 for 2002, up from $330,000 last year.

"We have been much more aggressive in pursuing landscape design work in the last two years," said AHBL planner Michael Kattermann.

Markets include ecosystem restoration, museums and historic landscapes, educational facilities and botanic gardens.

In the past year, AHBL planners and landscape architects have been assisting Pierce County and the city of Olympia in the development and illustration of low-impact design guidelines. In November 2001, AHBL was awarded two People's Choice awards for work in low-impact design from the Washington

Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Recent projects for the landscape group include: an ethnobotanical garden for the Quileute Tribe; Gorilla exhibits in Maui and Chicago: historic landscape preservation in Orting and Vashon Island; Ober Park playground design, Vashon; Bradley Lake Park landscape restoration, Puyallup: Henderson Bay High School campus design, Peninsula School District; South Hill Community Plan for Pierce County; and Sumner-White River Trail.