Sasaki

🌍🌱 As we deepen our understanding of climate change, it's clear that agriculture and the food system play a pivotal role, contributing approximately 25-30% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This reality underscores the urgent need for innovative solutions in land use and sustainable practices. Landscape architects are uniquely positioned to lead this conversation. Our expertise in responsibly planning land use is crucial for developing strategies that not only mitigate climate impact but also foster resilience within our delicate food systems. At Sasaki, we’ve embraced this challenge through transformative projects. The Songzhuang Arts and Agriculture Community in Beijing is a prime example, where we’ve shifted the paradigm of agriculture's role in economies, illustrating how they are interwoven. Similarly, our work at Lim Chu Kang in Singapore showcases a visionary approach to food security, creating pathways to sustain a thriving metropolis of 7 million people with innovative agricultural solutions. This week, I’m excited to be in Puerto Rico to kick off a project focused on food resilience for the island with a catalyst project in San Lorenzo. Together, we can enhance food security and bolster the local economy with regenerative agriculture and complementary programming. Collectively as a profession, let’s lead the conversation on how land planning and design can create a more sustainable future for agriculture and food systems. 🌿 #SustainableDesign #FoodResilience #ClimateChange #LandscapeArchitecture #Agriculture

This month in Athletic Business, architect Emily Parris, AIA reflects on her professional journey and how playing sports shaped how she approaches designing athletics facilities. "My goal is to create thoughtful and inviting performance environments that support individuals in their pursuit of personal excellence. Growing up involved in sports, I was a quiet kid, but athletics helped me make friends and taught me how to collaborate, celebrate and recover as a team," Emily says. 🔗Read more of Emily's conversation with other leading women architects in sports and recreation in honor of Women's History Month: https://ow.ly/4CvI50VjVh9 📷 Colby College Harold Alfond Athletics and Recreation Center

Sasaki is excited to be shortlisted for this incredible opportunity to transform Toronto's Downsview Airport runway into a new public space for the city. We're delighted to be working with Heatherwick studio, Miasto LLC, Buro Happold, Atelier Ten, L'Observatoire International, Group Delta Consultants, Inc., and Two Row Architect.

We're honored to see Bonnet Springs Park shortlisted among some other spectacular urban oases on USA Today's 10 Best City Parks! 🌳 This former railyard in Lakeland, Florida, is now an active green space, offering visitors of all ages a variety of ways to interact with the natural wonders around them—including winding trails, a canopy walkway, and a nature center that opens up access to the remediated lagoon overlooking Lake Bonnet. You can vote for Bonnet Springs Park to make it to the top 10 here: https://lnkd.in/e7rdX9Hd

🏀 How do you elevate the student-athlete experience within an existing building? With March Madness right around the corner, we’re looking back at how an innovative renovation at Boston College transformed the Conte Forum into a vibrant facility that strengthens connections between Division I athletes and the campus community. By expanding the facility and opening up spaces that previously felt hidden, we've created a more dynamic environment that amplifies team identity, creates more places for team-building, and provides cutting-edge spaces for recruitment and training. One of the most dramatic transformations was the Power Gym, which greets students at the facility’s north entrance. A precisely inserted curtain wall replaced the gym's brick exterior, opening the space to the campus landscape and flooding it with natural light. On the interior, this transparency visually connects the Power Gym to adjacent spaces like the weight room. The renovation and addition is a full-circle moment for Sasaki. Having designed the original Conte Forum in the 1980s, this was a unique opportunity to explore how college athletics have evolved and how thoughtful design can elevate the student-athlete experience and BC's athletics program. Read more about the project: https://lnkd.in/eAB687Ax

In Salalah, Oman, a bold new vision will transform the port city's coastline. Working closely with Oman’s Ministry of Housing & Urban Planning, Sasaki’s master plan combines housing, parks and open spaces, retail, cultural spaces and amenities, and two new hospitals to create a walkable, resilient new development. These improved amenities and a new six-kilometer-long public beach will help cement Salalah as a year-round destination for visitors. New City Salalah celebrates the region’s coastal context and protects its natural features. With the inclusion of a wetland park, a series of revetments, and other natural infrastructure, New City Salalah is designed to adapt to rising sea levels, flooding from the Khareef monsoon season, and other extreme weather events. As part of the Oman Vision 2040 plan, this project will help Oman achieve its goal of building a developed, diversified, and sustainable national economy. Construction is set to begin later this year. Read more on designboom: https://ow.ly/QlmY50VbR2X

As designers of the built environment, we hold the power to shape the world around us. But what world should that be? One that mirrors the fractured narratives of our 24-hour news cycle, or one rooted in fairness, justice, and truth? A recent decision to erase queer and transgender references from the National Parks Service's Stonewall National Monument website is deeply concerning. Just as the built environment shapes collective memory, the language we use, or erase, determines whose stories are remembered. Every decision, whether in language, policy, or physical space, shapes collective memory. These website changes reflect a broader struggle: whose stories are preserved, and whose are erased. As someone actively shaping the vision for the area near the National Monument, we must create spaces that reflect the fullness of human experience. The world we design today will shape the stories future generations inherit. Sasaki Zach Owens / West Village Business Improvement District

Congratulations to Emily Parris, AIA and Ian Scherling on their promotions to Associate Principal 🎉 Architect Emily Parris is a leader in designing spaces for student athletics and wellbeing. Emily combines her technical expertise with her experience as a former collegiate athlete, working on facilities that honor campus traditions while enhancing the student experience. Her recent projects include new field houses at Swarthmore and Cornell and Brown University’s Indoor Turf Facility. Landscape architect Ian Scherling approaches each project with careful attention to local context to create spaces that meaningfully connect people to place. He is a leading voice on campus landscapes and a champion of inclusive design, sharing his approach to human-centered design and adapting historic landscapes at SCUP and ASLA conferences. Ian has worked on campuses across the country, including UC Berkeley, Baylor University, and Swarthmore College. As associate principals, Emily and Ian will continue shaping the firm’s future—strengthening partnerships, mentoring the next generation of designers, and advancing projects that leave a lasting impact on communities and campuses alike. Learn more about their work here: https://ow.ly/PIKt50V7apG #SasakiLeadership #DesignExcellence

Community is central to what makes Brimmer and May a beloved PK-12 school in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. In 2021, Sasaki undertook a comprehensive master plan that would chart the course for the School’s next chapter. Breaking ground this spring, the Recreation & Wellness Center is a central component of the master plan. Designed to be more than a place for athletics, the 26,000 square-foot building will replace the existing Thompson Gymnasium, more than tripling the space on campus dedicated to recreation and wellness curriculum. The new center will add classrooms, a dedicated fitness center, a junior gymnasium, and a competition-size court that can be divided into smaller spaces to accommodate multiple simultaneous activities. One of the anchors of this building is its welcoming courtyard between the Dining Commons and the Wellness Center with space for outdoor dining and events. The space underscores the values of “wellbeing, wellness, and community,” according to Sasaki Principal Vinicius Gorgati. Nearly all spaces throughout the building are designed to be flexible, offering multiple uses for Brimmer and May’s students, teachers, and staff, as well as alumni and families.

Sasaki's experience working on campuses of all sizes provides unique insight into the evolving challenges our clients face. Read the latest edition of Sasaki in Context to discover how we're helping shape future-ready spaces through innovative campus planning solutions.