Portico Group works with interpretive and cultural projects that involve a variety of specialties within the landscape architecture practice. Markets include arboreta and botanical gardens, museums and visitor centers, zoos and aquaria, parks, recreation and eco-tourism.

Current staff is 40, down from 45 last year, but the firm anticipates expansion in the exhibit design staff. Gross revenue increased from $5.3 million in 2000 to $6.2 million in 2001, and is expected to hold steady in 2002.

“A number of planning and design projects are now resuming following a brief slowdown due to the recession and client jitters from recent world events,” said President Michael Hamm. “Our diversified private and public non-profit projects spanning national and international clients have provided us with a greater degree of economic stability.”

During the last year Portico has seen the completion and opening of Crossroads Park in Bellevue; the latest phase of Heritage Park in Olympia; Sea Lion Shores at the Auckland Zoo; the Animal Resource Center at the San Francisco Zoo; the Toronto Zoo African Tropical Rainforest exhibit; and the Seattle Police Mounted Patrol Facility. Projects under construction include the Issaquah Hatchery Education Center; the Lowry Park Children’s Zoo in Tampa; the Stream Profile Chamber at Turtle Bay in Redding, Calif.; the Jaguar Exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo; and the Regenstein African Journey at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Current work includes: Dallas Zoo Wilds of Africa exhibit, Olympia Decatur Street Park; Honolulu Zoo Master Plan; Discovery Center and Hawaiian Islands Exhibits; Seattle’s Jefferson Park Master Plan; the Miami Zoo Aviary; Camp Muir Rehabilitation at Mt. Rainier National Park, Oklahoma City Zoo Master Plan; Oklahoma Botanical Garden Master Plan in Stillwater; Oltremare Park in Italy; San Francisco Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park; and Utah Field House of Natural History Exhibits in Vernal, Utah.