Kobayashi & Associates
Management: Koichi Kobayashi, president
Specialty: Landscaping for large-scale, mixed-use projects
Year founded: 1981
Current projects: Martin Luther King Jr. Way South streetscape project for Sound Transit; planning and design for open space, parks and plazas at a 10,000-unit development south of Shanghai
With the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics, Kobayashi & Associates has worked on several landscape projects in China — most of which are fast-track, according to Koichi Kobayashi, president of the firm.
Typically, clients hire firms like Kobayashi & Associates because they are based outside China and can offer a new style, Kobayashi said. “They like to bring in Western or Japanese design — it’s something new to them.”
The firm’s work for a 10,000-unit housing project near Shanghai is challenging because “we are trying to get the group of clients to agree to what they want,” he said.
“Most of the clients in these Chinese projects are very young and energetic and that means they are very indecisive in terms of identifying what they want us to do, so we have to produce a number of design alternatives,” he said.
Closer to home, Kobayashi said the Martin Luther King Jr. Way South streetscape project for Sound Transit also has its challenges. The project has been delayed due to litigation, and Kobayashi said he also laments the loss of trees along the route. Yet some of the trees in the Rainier Vista area will be saved, he said.