Dietz/Hartlage
Management: Duane Dietz, associate principal
Specialty:Landscape architecture, interpretive planning, graphic design
Year founded: 2003
Current projects: S Landscape design for Tacoma Community College computer science building, Kitsap County Special Events Center, Eastside Catholic High School
About 70 percent of Dietz/Hartlage’s business is for the public sector. For a new computer science building at the University of Tacoma, the firm is looking at capturing roof runoff and directing it to an interpretive rain garden. The garden will have a sculptural element that will be interactive, to engage people’s imaginations, according to associate principal Duane Dietz. “It will only work when it’s raining,” he said, adding that the sculpture will likely have whirligigs.
On the private project side, Dietz/Hartlage is working on residential work, with a $2 million garden in North Carolina and a $1.3 million garden in the Hamptons. In the commercial area, he said the firm is working on low-impact design and development standards.
“We’re creating a new vernacular,” he said. Green parking lots, with no curbs and swales to collect and help recirculate rainwater for irrigation, are part of that effort. “It saves them money,” he said, referring to clients.