Ayers Saint Gross

This month, we're celebrating World Landscape Architecture Month with the American Society of Landscape Architects by highlighting some of our favorite landscape architecture projects. The campus of Ringling College of Art and Design draws inspiration from the Florida landscape, knitting the Whitaker Bayou into the campus fabric. A variety of open spaces provide places for students to gather, study, and create while a native plant palette reflects the local sub-tropical climate. Activated landscapes surrounding student housing establish community and provide new social spaces, while rain gardens, swales, and cisterns act as part of a robust green infrastructure network. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eQbvunDn.

We’re proud to announce the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden was chosen as a finalist in the 51st annual International Interior Design Association which honors outstanding, innovative, and original commercial interior design. Serving as a gateway for the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Jack C. Taylor Visitor Center is designed to help visitors pause and reconnect with nature. Inspired by the history of the Garden and its extensive plant collection, the building incorporates elements of the natural world for an immersive visitor experience. Photos by Casey Dunn. Learn more about this honor: https://lnkd.in/eus-2TNk. #IIDAAwards #interiordesign #missouribotanicalgarden #IIDA

Ayers Saint Gross is committed to environmental stewardship. This Earth Day, we're celebrate some of our most recent LEED certified projects, including the Center for Media Arts, Computing, and Design at Clark University, the Conway School of Nursing at The Catholic University of America, and The Ridge graduate student housing at Emory University. We’re honored to have worked on these high-performance buildings that support environmental and human health and accelerate our clients toward their sustainability goals. Learn more about our sustainability efforts: https://lnkd.in/eRiRk4G3.

This month, we're celebrating World Landscape Architecture Month with the American Society of Landscape Architects by highlighting some of our favorite landscape architecture projects. Located between Piers 3 and 4 of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, National Aquarium Harbor Wetland is a 10,000-square-foot floating wetland that allows visitors to immerse themselves in a salt marsh habitat like those that existed in the area hundreds of years ago. Utilizing over 30,000 grasses and shrubs combined with water aeration technology, the project acts as green infrastructure to promote clean waters, attract native species, and provide a variety of habitats to support a strong ecosystem. A free outdoor exhibit and civic anchor, the wetland serves as a natural oasis in the midst of the city, with an attached learning dock where visitors can observe and learn about the many native species that call the Chesapeake Bay home. Video by Pete VonDeLinde. Learn more about this project: https://lnkd.in/e-Vx7Agm. #ASLA #LandscapeArchitecture #SustainableDesign #WLAM2025

Join Principal Cooper Melton, AIA tomorrow, April 17 at 2 p.m. for a free virtual forum on "Designing a Campus for Student Engagement." This forum, hosted by The Chronicle of Higher Education's Scott Carlson, will discuss current trends in student engagement on campus and practical tools administrators and campus planners can use to increase engagement and contribute to overall academic success. Learn more or register: https://lnkd.in/eG5yUAdP.

The Grove residence hall at Quinnipiac University is designed to help students have an impactful living-learning experience. Planned to accommodate students in the university’s Immersive Curricular Experience, The Grove includes 415 beds in double rooms with some singles, as well as ample outside-the-unit and amenity spaces for study, collaboration, and socialization. Interior spaces are designed to encourage student interactions, with a lounge, kitchen, and laundry room on each floor, as well as flexible spaces for residential programming. Floor-to-ceiling windows promote student wellness, providing daylight and views of the surrounding woodlands and mountains. This project was completed in association with Amenta Emma. Photos by Robert Benson Photography Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dcaYF8nb.

This month, we're celebrating World Landscape Architecture Month with the American Society of Landscape Architects by highlighting some of our favorite landscape architecture projects. The Kington Plaza and Christiansen Outdoor Learning Spaces at Grinnell College serve as a model for a multi-functional collegiate landscape that supports a flexible and lively student experience. Designed to embody the spirit of academic freedom, the landscape includes a sequence of open-air classrooms and learning modes to support both student collaboration and quiet contemplation. Social coves, hammocks, and large, custom-designed boomerang benches provide new areas for social gathering and expression. The design team incorporated sustainable practices throughout the project, including recycled slate chalkboards and some of the first bioswales on campus. Drawing inspiration from the campus' location in Iowa's tallgrass prairie region, the plant palette includes dominant uses of switchgrass, prairie drop seed, and blue gama grass along with other native plants like coneflower, oxeye sunflowers, and Aspen trees. Learn more about this project: https://lnkd.in/eji_YN_6. #ASLA #LandscapeArchitecture #LandscapeDesign #WLAM2025

At Ayers Saint Gross I was introduced to to NOMA and its mission. Thank you for the continue support to all our office NOMA Chapters. Together we can keep building are more inclusive profession!

Kudos to Jessica Leonard for this insightful article on how higher education institutions can adapt to today’s rapidly changing landscape. Jess outlines several practical strategies that institutions can use to navigate complex challenges—from shifting demographics to evolving pedagogies: --> Comprehensive Space Management – Keeping an up-to-date inventory of campus spaces (use, size, condition) helps inform smart, strategic decisions. --> Facility Condition Assessments – Routine evaluations help prioritize investments and ensure buildings support their intended functions. --> Utilization Analysis – Understanding how classrooms and labs are used can uncover ways to improve scheduling and space allocation. --> Flexible, Resilient Planning – Adaptive strategies help campuses respond to unexpected shifts, be it funding changes or enrollment fluctuations. By putting these practices into place, colleges and universities can stay responsive, resilient, and future-ready. I highly recommend giving it a read. #HigherEd #CampusPlanning #SpaceUtilization #FacilitiesStrategy

The history of higher education has always been intertwined with national and global events. From world wars, the GI Bill, the space race, co-education, and macro-demographic shifts, to the recent global pandemic, all of these events have shaped higher education — its programs, priorities, and physical campus spaces. The quantity, quality, configuration, and location of space needed to support the programs of an institution are almost always being scrutinized and adjusted. Change and adaptation are constant. But sudden events, such as the recent disruption in federal funding for higher education, accelerate the urgency with which campuses must adapt. What can you do to best position your campus now and in the future? Read four strategies to consider: https://lnkd.in/ezYA5vnT. #campusplanning #highereddesign