Project Service: Landscape Architecture / Urbanism

Cattlemen’s Square Landscape Architecture and Urbanism

Cattlemen's Square Landscape Architecture

CGA’s Landscape Architecture and Urbanism Department was selected to work with the City of Okeechobee under a continuing services contract. The main project is the renovation and improvement to the Main Street parks which consist of seven smaller parks or squares. Each of these areas have a different theme and the first priority was the Cattlemen’s Square. The park’s committee wanted to include bronze sculptures depicting a cattle drive that would reflect the rich heritage of cattle ranching in the community.

Our firm worked with the selected artist to arrange the sculptures (ten pieces in total) and coordinate the installation and lighting effects for each one of them. We also designed new walkways, benches, seating areas, informational signage, landscaping, and irrigation.

Our team of CGA professionals worked together to capture a design that delivers a beautiful public space where residents and visitors can enjoy the City at its best but also celebrate the wonderful cultural traditions of the cattle ranching community.

To learn more on how CGA’s Landscape Architecture and Urbanism Department can help your community to develop and improve the quality of its public spaces, please contact us. We will design the best solution for your needs.

Wilton Drive Conceptual Streetscape Design (Unbuilt)

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The conceptual design for this project sought to capitalize on several opportunities to:

  • rethinking Wilton Drive’s role in the community,
  • giving it a new vision while respecting its small-town character, and
  • turning it into a significant destination and elevate its design offerings with better branding.

In order to meet this vision, CGA’s approach was to develop a design that fundamentally sought to highlight ‘place-making’ and social character. While an understanding of the traffic engineering constraints was important, our belief was that it should not be the sole driving force behind the design, and the project should be about more than just making the corridor visually attractive. Therefore, our approach:

  • encouraged local community identity over generic design solutions; instead it strategized ways to create places that responded to needs of the residents and helped with community cohesion;
  • remained socially connected by understanding that Wilton Drive was not just a roadway, but rather a spine at the social heart and the cultural center of the City. It focused on how people could use the space for everyday activities and for special events, how it could be flexible and adaptable, and how it interacted with adjacent areas to encourage walkability, ease of access and comfort;
  • improved the longer-term “livability”, management and maintenance of the built streetscape environment, including all aspects of its ‘public realm’, to ensure spaces can remain relevant, clean, safe and green;
  • contributed to the achievement of sustainable development by integrating ‘green’ stormwater systems, respected historic context, capitalized on resources, and responded to needs of adaptability; and
  • delivered value, focused on a design process that was shaped around issues of quality, efficiency and overall sustainability.

Lloyds Estates Resiliency Demonstration Project

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As a component of a drainage master plan project, CGA developed an innovative design solution for the implementation of a flood-control dam structure to be coupled with a bio-swale with a tidal wetland landscape typology.

The focus of the project was to utilize the proposed pump station site as an opportunity to create an educational pocket park focusing on green and sustainable solutions to marry drainage designs responsive to sea-level rise and tidal impacts.

Together, they work to control the impending floods and serve to provide the ecologically significant benefits of tidal wetlands while increasing the holding capacity of the system. Beyond its environmental and engineering impacts, the project also utilizes the opportunity afforded by the site and its location to signal and create a gateway experience for the City, as it is on the edge of the City’s boundary and along a well-transited thoroughfare.

The design for the site, despite its size, is envisioned to have a high social impact, as it will be of a high design quality that includes a boardwalk with Folia® educational signage, unique paving design, furnishings for passive uses, native landscaping, branding signage with character lighting design, security features, and the inclusion of a transit bus bay.

Miami Beach Recreational Corridor Phase II

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CGA designed and permitted an on-grade, ADA-accessible pathway that supports the use of pedestrians and cyclists and an integral component of the City’s overall resiliency and climate adaptation plan, directly supporting the City’s investment in strengthening the dunes for storm surge protection and by providing a critical component of its alternative transportation network. The project is a part of the greater Atlantic Greenway Network, and comprises a critical component of the bicycle facilities throughout the City of Miami Beach. It connects Indian Beach Park on the south to the North Beach Recreational Trail at Allison Park with a 2-mile paver walkway, continuing the City’s unique branding qualities.

The path was permitted in accordance with the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection’s and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s regulations, as the entirety of the project lies within State-owned lands. The scope of work included extensive public outreach, branding and site design, coastal engineering, dune planting plans, lighting design, and bidding and construction administration. The project connects business districts, cultural/tourism centers, parks, residential neighborhoods and the beaches, and it completed a major portion of the essential north-south connector of the AGN to facilitate pedestrian and non-motorized transportation throughout the City.

Broward County EOC Library Park Master Plan

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In response to Broward County’s desire to reconfigure their Emergency Operation Center (EOC), CGA reconceptualized the spaces in between the various other buildings (including the County Courthouse and a branch of the County Library System) in the campus setup as a series of socialized spaces. These were sized and detailed to operate as event spaces to accommodate uses such as program uses that could be organized by the Library (book fairs, reading sessions, author-meets, etc.) or events that could be organized by greater community services, such as fresh food market, antique fair, and other such public-use events. Considerations for these were the quality and branding of the environment and embedding security features into the design so that the space could be defensible given the sensitive nature of the program uses of the various campus buildings. Lastly, access driveways and parking areas were detailed and conceived in manners that increased their flexibility of use and application, so that they could, on a low-intensity use period or during an event, could function as a use-area and not ‘feel’ like a road or parking lot.

Doral Boulevard Streetscape Master Plan

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CGA prepared the Doral Boulevard Streetscape Master Plan for NW 36/41st Street to guide the character of the boulevard over the following 2 generations. The master plan addresses issues both of the planning and beautification nature. The plan establishes the guidelines for urban development fronting the boulevard, determining building heights, massing characteristics, sidewalk amenities, and it established the parameters through which a pedestrian-friendly environment can be created. Additionally, the master plan establishes a beautification palette consisting of street furniture, paving styles, plant palettes, and architectural features at strategic points for the creation of gateways and determinant of a sense of place. An important aspect of the project is the planning of a consistent branding strategy with the use of landscape buffer design, gateway designs, city entrance designs off of both the Turnpike and the Palmetto Expressway, and a coherent theme consistent with the various urban and sub-urban qualities present along the 4-mile corridor’s stretch.

Fire Station Commemorative Plaza

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The Delray Beach CRA’s 2002 Downtown Master Plan identified NW/SW 5th Avenue as the mid-point along Atlantic Avenue, between Interstate I-95 and the downtown core. The plan recommended the creation of twin public plazas on the northwest and southwest corners of the intersection to serve as a new neighborhood center and gathering place for the community as a whole. CGA designed the plaza on the Northwest corner which consists of landscape features and pedestrian amenities. The design also included colorful terrazzo and keystone pavers similar to the Libby Wesley Plaza (SW corner) of intersection, and includes four bronze emblems featuring fire rescue motifs. Green building elements such as permeable pavers and native vegetation were also incorporated into the project. The design allows for seamless integration into the Atlantic Avenue corridor while still honoring the unique civic identity of the Fire Rescue Headquarters.

Shops at Pembroke Gardens

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CGA prepared the master site plan and detail design engineering plans for The Shops at Pembroke Gardens – a 400,000 sq. ft. lifestyle center designed to promote a vibrant, dynamic, and successful pedestrian retail environment. Located on approximately forty (40) acres within the City of Pembroke Pines, The Shops at Pembroke Gardens provides a unique pedestrian shopping experience consisting of a variety of national, regional, and local retailers. CGA created an urban design plan that consisted of an ample, tree-lined main street, a central green, and small pocket park areas. A trolley stop was also designed to serve the neighboring Century Village Residents. CGA also processed the plat, master site plan, and rezoning for the site. The site was rezoned from A-1 to Planned Commercial Development (PCD), and CGA worked with the developer and the City to create design guidelines tailored specifically to the project. The guidelines were written to provide sufficient flexibility to each retailer to bring forth its unique image and identity, resulting in a true downtown shopping experience. Additionally, CGA processed site plan amendment applications for the Lifestyle Center’s perimeter buildings, each of which required separate architectural review and approval.

174th Street Bridge Park Conceptual Design

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CGA designed an award-winning concept for an innovative pedestrian bridge over “the most dangerous roadway within the City-limits.” This was in support of a Miami-Dade County Transportation Planning Organization grant. The CGA design team approached the design by breaking free from traditional pedestrian bridges (usually surrounded by a cage structure) that transcend the illusion of a cage and instead create an elevated park system, increasing pedestrian and vehicular safety.

The design approached the project as creating a destination and experience by branding it as a ‘park’ and not just a ‘bridge.’ Instead of simply creating a connection across the street, the project should instead be thought of as a solution that creates an extension of open space that envelops the bold ethos of its context with an iconic and emblematic solution that increases connectivity and capitalizes on the vistas of Sunny Isles Beach.

CGA was able to obtain approval of its security and safety strategy from FDOT District 6 and paved the way for the project to move forward into its design and construction process.

Saddle Club Road Roundabout

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CGA’s design of the Weston Roundabout at Saddle Club Road and South Post Road included hardscape and softscape design, as well as drainage, planting, irrigation, and lighting design. CGA also created a proposed plant material palette that was consistent and compatible with the City of Weston’s codes and its “signature” landscape aesthetic. The project included paver crosswalks, a new entrance sign, and new columns and gates into the adjacent Regional Park. Accents, such as small columns in the circle, up lighting on the palms, and decorative traffic signs add to the aesthetic appeal of the project. This roundabout was among the first ever successful in Broward County and served as a design model that other municipalities followed.

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