Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture
Specialty: Museums and cultural institutions, urban plazas and parks, landscape restoration
Management: Charles Anderson, managing principal
Founded: 1994
Headquarters: Seattle
Projects: 55-acre theme park in Dalien, China; Museum of History & Art in Anchorage; riverfront development in Reno, Nev., that includes a 20-story tree wall; the Bellingham Art & Children’s Museum
We’re just exploding right now,” said Charles Anderson, managing principal of the 14-person landscape architecture firm. By summer’s end, after 18 years in Seattle, Anderson will be moving to Napa, Calif., to supervise the opening of his company’s first satellite office.
Image courtesy Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture and Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects The Lightcatcher in the Garden of the Ancients at the Bellingham Art and Children’s Museum provides a backdrop for artistic expressions and unlimited opportunities for change, variation and visitor interaction. It was designed by Charles Anderson Landscape Architecture. |
Anderson just finished a term on the Seattle Design Commission, an entity he calls “timid.”
“I drove the Parks Department nuts,” he said. “I wanted them to be more adventurous with their design.”
Working with high-end architects
Anderson finds his company in a fortunate position these days. “More and more lately, we’ve got high-end architects to work with,” he said. They include New York architect Carlos Zapata, English architect David Chipperfield and the Seattle architecture firm of Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen.
OSKA is collaborating with Anderson on the Bellingham Art & Children’s Museum and six custom homes and landscapes in Shanghai.
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Projects in China
Anderson’s firm is also doing other projects in China, including a 3.5-acre waterfront retail aquarium development. He said the Chinese government is encouraging its middle class to take advantage of its newly acquired leisure time. “They want to play,” he said. “They want to give the developing middle class stuff to do.”
Anderson has just been elected a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
“I’m old enough to have an F in front of my name,” he said.