Not Your Average Landscape
Architecture Project
Pools. Parks. Downtowns. Campuses.
Ecosystems. Athletic facilities. Landscape
architects indeed take on a variety
of projects in their line of work. But
Blake Theisen, one of four professional
landscape architects at Ayres Associates,
notes a common denominator among
all of them: inspiration. Whatever the
project, the team strives to create
vibrant, engaging public spaces that
enhance the quality of life.
“That’s why I get out of bed,” he said.
“I want to see how people behave with
each other and move through spaces
20│ TRENDS
and have experiences in the places we
design. That, to me, is really exciting.”
When it comes to a community pool
project, Theisen said that, to him, it’s
not about how many trees and shrubs
there are or what color a slide is – of
course, that’s all part of it – but rather
how users experience it.
“How do they move through a space?
What are they thinking? What do they
remember when they leave?” he said.
Theisen shared that some of his favorite
memories as a young boy were of being
in parks and pools. He strives to see
that the next generation has similar
sentiments.
“I hope that when the kids of today
grow up, they’re remembering the
experiences that they had in the
projects that we designed,” he said.
– Jennifer Schmidt