The Lakota Promise
Join us in donating to the Sioux YMCA initiative, which provides leadership development at the Cheyenne River Reservation. Click the donate button below for the Sioux YMCA PayPal account. Self-Discovery and Alignment: As a company, the Lakota Group is and has always been committed to embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion and making it a key... Read More
Categories: Lakota Promise
Historic Preservation: An Integral Ingredient in Solving the Contemporary Urban Plight
Want more? Click here for the full PDF:Historic Preservation – An Integral Ingredient in Solving the Contemporary Urban Plight Read More
Categories: Ideas + Research, In The News
Movin’ On Up!
The Lakota Group celebrates its hard-working team members and their new titles. Read More
Categories: Around the Office, Awards + Accolades
It’s Award Season at Lakota
Lakota Wins Merit Award for St. Cloud Placemaking The Lakota Group was recently presented with a Merit Award by the Illinois chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ILASLA) for its innovative work in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Engaged to help identify placemaking strategies and opportunities to enhance quality of life, Lakota worked to educate St.... Read More
Categories: Awards + Accolades, In The News, Project Stories
Battling Hunger with Creative Muscle
You may have noticed them if you’ve walked through the Merchandise Mart sometime in late August through early September. They stand about 10 feet tall and resemble anything from a waterfall to Garfield to a hotdog. Of course, we are talking about Chicago’s annual CANstruction event. For the past several years, Chicago’s leading AEC firms... Read More
Categories: Around the Office, Uncategorized
Lakota, LAbash and the Future of Landscape Architecture
Each year, landscape architecture students host an event called LAbash and for three days industry professionals are welcomed to host design workshops and give presentations on topics relevant to the industry. Since 1970, the networking event has been hosted by a different university in North America and since this year it was being held Scott... Read More
Categories: Awards + Accolades, Ideas + Research
Lakota Helps Sisters of BVM in Dubuque Plan for the Future
One of our more unique projects we’ve been working on for the past year or so has been in Dubuque, Iowa with the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Sisters asked that Lakota help develop a plan that would preserve their 108-acre campus in ways that align with their values as they... Read More
Categories: In The News, Project Stories
Mercy Donates Historic Home in Cedar Rapids MedQuarter to Couple
For the past year, The Lakota Group has been working in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on developing a master plan for the newly-created MedQuarter district. While Lakota’s work on the master plan is nearing completion for the Self-Supporting Municipal Improvement District (SSMID), it looks like there is some other news taking place in the district. Recently,... Read More
Categories: In The News, Project Stories
Synthetic Turf’s Presence Grows in Winnetka
A few weeks ago I attended the ribbon cutting for a project I worked on for the Winnetka Park District. The project was the first portion of a Master Plan enhancement to the Park District’s Skokie Playfield complex. It was very rewarding to see the project come to life as it had been a five... Read More
Categories: Ideas + Research, Project Stories
The Famous Box Elder
I opened up my July issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine and started flipping through the pages, looking for some cool designs and inspiration. After reading a few articles, I turned the page and saw some wire trees. I said to myself, ‘This is cool–I did the same type of thing as my first project in... Read More
Categories: Ideas + Research
Photos: Lakota Hosts Happy Hour for APA Conference
The American Planning Association recently held its national conference in Chicago and for the special occasion, we held a happy hour to bring together our friends in the planning world. While the location of the event was originally planned for our office courtyard, we moved it inside because it was a tad bit chilly (just... Read More
Categories: Around the Office
Art-o-mat in the ‘Cloud
Recently, a group of us from Lakota were in St. Cloud, Minnesota, kicking off a Comprehensive Placemaking process. It was an intense, but great, week. We met with a diverse spectrum of people through a range of formal and informal settings. For much of the week we were camped out in a vacant storefront on... Read More
Categories: Ideas + Research, Project Stories
Challenges and Opportunities of Integrating “Green” into Ordinances
As the desire to incorporate sustainable initiatives into homes, businesses and developments grows, local governments often find that their ordinances did not anticipate these new practices. While certain practices require completely new language, others—such as rain barrels and light shelves—may be restricted by unintentional barriers within existing ordinances. Daniel Grove, Lakota associate principal, will present... Read More
Categories: Awards + Accolades, Ideas + Research
Mastering the Main Street Revitalization Approach
The grassroots Main Street Four-Point Approach, developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has helped revitalize traditional commercial districts in small towns, suburbs, and urban neighborhoods across the country over the last three decades. Lakota vice president, Nick Kalogeresis, who spent 10 years working for the National Trust Main Street Center as a program... Read More
Categories: Ideas + Research, In The News, Project Stories
Transit-Oriented Downtown Evanston
Abutting Chicago’s North Side, Evanston has developed a reputation as a desirable, transit-oriented community that promotes economic growth without compromising its unique sense of place. For the APA’s National Planning Conference being held in Chicago from April 13-17, Kevin Clark, Lakota Group vice president, will give a tour of Evanston’s mixed-used downtown and will talk... Read More
Categories: Around the Office, Ideas + Research, In The News
Reinvigorating Oak Park through Public Investment
What is the long-term value of investing in high-quality public spaces? And what impact do public infrastructure improvements have on private investment and placemaking? Daniel Grove, associate principal at The Lakota Group, and Scott Freres, principal/president, will be giving a tour of historic Marion Street in Oak Park for the National American Planning Association Conference... Read More
Categories: Awards + Accolades, Ideas + Research, In The News, Project Stories
A Few Brews
Just before the holidays, a few of us at Lakota got together at my house to eat some pizza and brew a little beer. It was a fairly cold night to be brewing on my back deck, but with a few layers and a few…umm, beverages, we were able to stay warm and complete several... Read More
Categories: Around the Office
My Ideal Urban Design/Planning Bookshelf
In response to one of 2012’s big holiday gifts for bibliophiles, My Ideal Bookshelf, in which various leading cultural figures provide a list of their favorite books, I’ve decided to jump on the bandwagon and offer up my own personal list. However, in the spirit of this blog and for the sake of brevity (I... Read More
Categories: Ideas + Research
Happy Holidays!
This photo was taken by Daniel Grove, associate principal at The Lakota Group. The image was taken in the Pleasant District of historic downtown Oak Park, Ill., where The Lakota Group did the streetscape design using a rich variety of materials, such as natural stone, brick street/sidewalk paving, custom site furnishings, a central water feature,... Read More
Categories: Around the Office, Project Stories
Bike Sharing is Coming to Chicago
Here at The Lakota Group, we have a few employees who ride their bikes regularly to work (Megan and Jason), so we were happy to hear that Chicago is bringing bike love to everyone come Spring 2013. The Chicago Department of Transportation is asking anyone who is interested to post on a map where he... Read More
Categories: Around the Office, Ideas + Research
Tour de Cincinnati
I recently had the opportunity to spend a long weekend back in my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. Every time I take a trip back I’m eager to experience the slow, but steady, revitalization of downtown and the near neighborhoods. This time, it was a little bit more exciting because I was hauling my bike... Read More
Categories: Around the Office, Ideas + Research
The Power of Community — Green Apple Day of Service
I recently spent my Saturday participating in the Green Apple Day of Service program, organized by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC). I had volunteered months back and had been paired with a school that was requesting professional assistance. In this case, I became partnered with two adjacent schools in Blue Island that were... Read More
Categories: Around the Office
Change–The Only Constant at the Lurie Garden
Last year, I had the opportunity to intern at the Lurie Garden in Chicago’s Millennium Park, designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and Piet Oudolf. While working in the garden, I was reminded daily of a design element that distinguishes the practice landscape architecture from other design disciplines –change in the landscape over time. Completed in... Read More
Categories: Around the Office, Ideas + Research