We embrace the complexity of working in urban environments through a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach. While we work at all scales, our practice is exclusively focused on Urban Design, Planning and Engagement. This interdisciplinary approach means that our plans identify a set of city-building elements that collectively and incrementally work together to catalyze change.
- Master Planning for Complex Sites
- Development Advisory and Approvals
- Engagement
- City and Regional Strategies
- Downtown Strategies
- Campus Planning
- Transportation Oriented Plans
- Retail Revitalization
- Working with Indigenous Partners
- Urban Design Guidelines
- Waterfront Regeneration
- Health Care Planning
- Planning for Sustainability and Resilience
- Modelling and Visualization
As Urban Designers, we are recognized internationally as a leader in strategic city building, having prepared successful master plans for large and small projects in city centres around the world. Taking a design-based approach, we seamlessly integrate new buildings, spaces and places into existing urban fabric.
We are consultants, not builders. While our staff includes architects and landscape architects, we do not practice architecture or landscape architecture. Our focus on the larger strategic picture means we can see the forest for the trees, providing objective, strategic advice for clients.
We understand the elements and processes of successful city-building, the important relationships between built form and the public realm, the range of building and development typologies that can accommodate a diverse population, and the need to create an appropriate mix of uses. We also understand the elements that contribute to a high quality and attractive built environment that create ‘place’ – not just streets, buildings and landscapes.
As Planners, the core of what we do is understand land and cities – their development, constraints and opportunities and the strategies needed to best manage their growth and change. In addition to routinely producing a wide range of policy documents, we apply our knowledge and experience to transformative real estate developments of all types. We understand the many factors that influence the viability and success of a development and how policies and guidelines can result in good urban design and sustainable communities.
Engagement is fundamental to our working process. We engage communities from the very beginning and throughout the full program – the objective is to ensure that by the end of the process the plan belongs to the community. By building on community interest through engagement, we establish credibility with participants, effectively managing issues, resolving conflicts and fostering support for a plan’s implementation. We use numerous methods to manage information and to facilitate a collaborative approach among all project participants.