Cooper Hewitt says...
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. (MVVA) is a landscape architecture firm based in Brooklyn, New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1982, the firm specializes in designing large-scale civic landscapes as well as developing smaller scale public plazas and other institutional projects. Principals Michael Van Valkenburgh, Laura Solano, Matthew Urbanski, Paul Seck, and Gullivar Shepard lead a 75-person team spanning two cities. Engaging urban planners, architects, and ecologists, MVVA embraces a multidisciplinary and sustainable approach to their designs for natural environments.
MVVA first achieved recognition in 1994 with a National Trust for Historic Preservation Honor Award for their restoration of the historic grounds in Harvard Yard. Since then, the firm has developed a plan for the redevelopment of the Jefferson Memorial waterfront in St. Louis, Princeton University, a master plan for Princeton University, created the Monk’s Garden at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and brought parkland to the Hudson Yards development on Manhattan’s West Side. For over three decades, the firm has helped to reinvent existing landscapes and create dynamic new topographies as well.
Since 2009, MVVA has been honored for its continued development of the Brooklyn Bridge waterfront, with awards from the Municipal Art Society and the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Brooklyn Bridge Park seeks to reclaim the former industrial site by introducing vast public spaces and a range of native plant species. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates earned Cooper Hewitt's National Design Award in 2003 for excellence in environmental design.
