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May 2010 SummaryFive Landscape Architectural Design Awards Omaha RDG Office Recognized as Best Place to Work Celebrating Regional Lighting Design Awards Five Landscape Architectural Design AwardsRDG Planning & Design receives four design awards from the Iowa Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) at the annual spring conference May 5, 2010. RDG is recognized with an Honor Award for design work on the Western Technical College - Cleary Courtyard in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Merit Awards for design work were received on the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park in Des Moines and the Belmont Park Natural Playscape in Lincoln, Nebraska. RDG was also recognized with a Merit Award for planning on The Neighborhood at Indian Creek in Marion, Iowa. The ASLA competition acknowledges excellence in Landscape Architectural planning and design by selecting those projects relevant to design quality, functionality and relationship to context, impact on public health, safety and welfare, and overall relevance to landscape architecture, the public and the environment.
RDG, in coordination with HSR Associates, Inc. of La Crosse, provided design and construction services for Western Technical College - Cleary Courtyard, winning an honor award in the Iowa Chapter's design-built category and a merit award in the Wisconsin Chapter's general design category. Cleary Courtyard, located in downtown La Crosse, replaces an underutilized plaza and pedestrian corridor to connect students, faculty, staff and other community members in a space that meets the demands of everyday campus life while blending with the surrounding landscape. The environmentally conscious courtyard utilizes sustainable stormwater management practices, green infrastructure, native plants and locally sourced materials.
The design-built merit award winning John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park transformed this once forgotten area of downtown Des Moines into an international destination and a 24/7 environment capable of connecting the spirit of the artist with the public. This 4.4 acre space is organized into simple, elegantly shaped "outdoor rooms" to act as a backdrop for various collections, with no fences, no gates and no admission fee. A relatively small public investment in open space and infrastructure has spawned an overwhelming private and community commitment to this diverse mixed use cultural district. Two other projects winning merit awards are Belmont Park Natural Playscape and The Neighborhood at Indian Creek . In the design-unbuilt category, Belmont Park Natural Playscape is designed as an outdoor space that is inviting and reflective of the culturally diverse Belmont Neighborhood of Lincoln, Nebraska and encourages play through non-traditional and natural play components. The park creates learning and recreational opportunities through the use of existing natural features, natural play elements and interactive public art. The Neighborhood at Indian Creek, a planning merit award winner, captures the emerging vision of the community of Marion, Iowa for this mixed use development with its Midwestern Architectural character and a neighborhood feel through neo-traditional planning. Omaha RDG Office Recognized as Best Place to WorkDesign is our business, people are our passion. As a corporation, we can only provide as much value to our projects and our community as the value our employees create. As the recipient of the 2010 top 5 Best Places to Work award among Omaha's medium-sized companies, RDG is honored to accept this award that coins us "one of the best in Omaha".
RDG's goal is to encourage and provide opportunities for our staff to adopt a series of lifestyles that allow them to achieve balance to their home, work and public lives. Lifestyles that maintain their value as good designers, commitment to sustainable decisions, living a healthy lifestyle, continuous learning, embracing new technology, and all the while having some fun! Helping to achieve RDG's goal is participation in the Best Places to Work survey. The best places to work survey is an annual initiative of Baird Holm, LLP, and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce, that provides an opportunity for employers to learn more about the engagement and satisfaction of their staff through an online employee survey. "This survey is another opportunity to help shape the future of RDG," says John Birge. "It is very helpful to our firm in understanding how everyone feels about the overall direction of the firm and its leadership. It also gives us a year-to-year scorecard on how we are doing," says Birge.
The survey, conducted through Quantum Workplace, lends its proprietary employee survey methodology and survey software for the nominees in each competition. As a result of the survey data, Quantum uses analytical tools to rank the top organizations in small, medium and large-sized companies. RDG SWB first participated in the Best Places to Work survey in 2005. That same year, RDG was recognized as one of the Best Places to Work top 5 medium-sized companies in Omaha. Since then, RDG has participated in the survey every year and has used survey results to implement programs that address issues or concerns raised by employees during the survey process. Areas addressed through the years include additional benefit programs such as: SimplyWell, Employee Assistance Programs and financial and emotional health education presentations, among others. Improved communication tools between employees and management and sustainability programs have also been implemented. Another perk in participating in the Best Places to Work survey is being recognized among our clients. "Our desire to work with clients who share the same value system that we do is exhibited through the fact that they are recognized in the same category that we are," says Birge referring to our client Vetter Health Services who was awarded first place in our same size category for companies with 50-250 employees. RDG was recognized, along with the other top companies, May 6th at the Best Places to Work Awards Luncheon at the Qwest Center Omaha. Celebrating Regional Lighting Design AwardsRDG Planning & Design is the recipient of SIX lighting design awards presented at the 2010 Illuminating Engineering Society's (IES) banquet in Minneapolis / St. Paul on April 13, 2010. IES Illumination Awards (formerly the International Illumination Design Awards) provides a unique opportunity for public recognition of the professionalism, ingenuity, and originality in lighting design based upon the individual merit of each entry judged against specific criteria. RDG has projects winning in three separate categories listed below. Of the six projects recognized at the sectional level, five of them have also won Regional Awards of Merit for design(**) CATEGORY 1: EDWIN F. GUTH MEMORIAL AWARD FOR INTERIOR LIGHTING DESIGN includes: ** ST. JOHN'S CATHEDRAL at CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY- OMAHA, NEBRASKA utilizes a new lighting design to improve on inefficient fixtures and poor lighting conditions. New custom lighting fixtures were created to both lower the electric bill of the cathedral as well as highlight the newly restored ceiling painting and architectural grandeur of the space. CATEGRORY 2: PAUL WATERBURY AWARD FOR OUTDOOR LIGHTING DESIGN includes:
CATEGORY 3: THE OSRAM SYLVANIA ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN AWARD includes:
The Lighting Studio at RDG specializes in enhancing environments through lighting design and attention to the visual and technical requirements of a project. Through careful selection of optical systems, fixture placements and lamp sources, each design is individually specified to blend the aesthetic and technological goals set forth at the beginning of each project. We create lighting systems that enhance and compliment the surrounding landscape and architecture both functionally and aesthetically. |
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