Join us in Brooklyn Heights on Court Street for a double-header After Hours event at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and Sasaki. 

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates 

Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA) is a landscape architecture firm that works across scales from small gardens to public parks and regional master plans. Founded by its namesake partner in 1982, the firm’s team of over 100 people is led by Michael Van Valkenburgh, Paul Seck, Emily Mueller De Cleis, Laura Solano, Gullivar Shepard, and Matthew Urbanski. With offices in Brooklyn, Cambridge, Denver, and Los Angeles, MVVA collaborates with a range of professionals, from hydrologists and climate scientists to artists and architects, to create landscapes “defined by the qualities of their sites and by the aspirations of people who will use them,” in the firm’s own words.

Completed projects include:

Shirley Chisholm State Park Transforming a pair of closed-and-capped landfills on Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn, this 400-acre park features 10 miles of bike and pedestrian trails, a “bicycle library,” and repurposed piers.

Williams Crossing This 1,400-foot pedestrian and cyclist bridge spans the Arkansas River to connect several miles of riverfront trails along an industrialized area near downtown Tulsa. 

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Water Conservation Project The new Shelby White and Leon Levy Water Garden collects stormwater through a weather-monitoring system that reduces the burden on municipal sewers and creates a new amenity for the landscape.

Upcoming projects include Port Lands Flood Protection in Toronto, Ralph Wilson Park in Buffalo, and the landscape for the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

Sasaki

Global design firm Sasaki offers architecture, interior design, planning and urban design, space planning, landscape architecture, and civil engineering services. Known for its integrated design approach across these disciplines, Sasaki’s projects span education, civic, institutional, and commercial sectors, from master plans focused on accessibility and sustainability to ground up construction. Founded by Hideo Sasaki in 1953 in Boston, the practice’s team of over 300 professionals works across offices in Denver, New York, Shanghai, and Los Angeles.

Completed projects include:

Boston City Hall Plaza Renovation In partnership with city leadership and with the input of thousands of Bostonians, this renovation is designed to bring a human scale and greater accessibility to the public space at the heart of the city’s downtown.

Wilmington Waterfront Promenade This open space is designed to connect Los Angeles’s Wilmington neighborhood to the Pacific Ocean, enhancing public access to the waterfront after the expansion of the Port of Los Angeles.

Universidad de Lima Recreation, Wellness, and Student Life Center Converting underutilized spaces in a dense campus district, this new building serves as hub for student life with wellness, dining, and recreation facilities united by a central atrium, as well as a new central plaza.

Upcoming projects include The Ellinikon Park in Athens, Greece, University of California, Berkeley Accessible Paths and Places Master Plan, and 10 World Trade in Boston.