SE Group Project Wins VTASLA Award for Planning, Research, and Analysis
Written by psamuelson on June 7, 2022
SE Group’s Minnesota Discovery Center Master Plan project has received the Vermont Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ (VTASLA) 2022 Award of Excellence for Planning, Research, and Analysis, the competition’s highest honor. The biennial Awards Program honors works in landscape architectural design, planning, communications, or research completed by members of VTASLA or for projects completed within Vermont by members of out-of-state American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) members. The awards were judged by an impartial jury of five landscape architects from the Alabama ASLA Chapter.
The Minnesota Discovery Center is a nonprofit museum and event complex in Chisholm, Minnesota that tells the story of the region’s mining history. SE Group was hired to develop a plan to reinvigorate the Center’s amenities and capitalize on the region’s shift to an outdoor recreation economy – while staying true to their original mission.
Senior Landscape Architect Patrick Olstad and Senior Recreation Planner Andrew Pollak-Bruce, CPRP led the master planning process. The result was a strong demonstration of SE Group’s multidisciplinary team collaboration, delivering a site-specific design that promotes a more engaging and cohesive family-friendly experience, with a visual character rooted in the local landscape. With a focus on revenue generation opportunities, the plan also includes financial modeling and implementation recommendations to support the long-term financial sustainability of the Center.
For more information on this year’s VTASLA winners, please visit their Awards page.