January 18, 2024

Please join us in congratulating Tom Mahone on his promotion to Associate at Ground Reconsidered.

Tom has been with Ground Reconsidered for nearly five years, and at this point, we don’t know how we could go on without the sweet treats he creates and shares with us! Tom is a talented designer who is always asking questions to further his understanding of site and context. He loves to uncover historical narratives hidden in the landscape to create a sense of place that reaches through time. He’s currently exploring the rich history of Bethel Burying Ground Memorial, which will celebrate a historically significant cemetery forgotten for nearly a century. Tom is also passionate about designing spaces that foster positive connections between people and Nature. It’s something that he considers in every project, but for William Penn Charter Lower School it was a driving focus even down to the fine details.

Tom gives credit to the small towns and rolling Piedmont landscape in South Central PA, where he grew up, that influenced his choice to become a landscape architect. He currently resides in Media with his wife and cat and loves spending time outdoors gardening, hiking, and fishing. He also enjoys playing music, cooking, and spending time with his family.

Congratulations, Tom!

January 11, 2024

Please join us in congratulating Lindsay High Stanislaw, ASLA, on her promotion to Senior Associate at Ground Reconsidered

Lindsay celebrates her 15th year at the firm this year. Her work spans a wide array of project types, but Lindsay holds a special place for roof top and amenity deck design; noting that environmental benefits are motivating factors, but ultimately, she hopes each one invites people to spend more time outside. The FMC Tower amenity deck, along with recently completed rooftop spaces at The Ryland and Schuylkill Yards, bring together Lindsay’s highly attuned skill set for dealing with complex landscapes over structure.

Lindsay grew up in North Carolina and the landscapes there continue to inspire her: coastal state parks, the NCMA sculpture park, longleaf pines, the music. The outdoors inspire her daily and seasonally; gardening is a favorite hobby. She is quite a talented grower and gardener, frequently sharing seasonal arrangements that highlight her gardens’ offerings. She also loves hiking and biking with her family on the weekends. Her recent travels include wonderfully inspiring Maine, Barbados, and Poland.

Please join us in a warm congratulations for Lindsay. Thank you for all of your continued contributions to the firm and profession!

August 10, 2023

GROUND RECONSIDERED IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE BRAD THORNTON AS PRINCIPAL

Join us in congratulating Brad Thornton, ASLA LEED AP on his promotion to Principal at Ground Reconsidered. An outstanding contributor to the firm for over 15 years, Brad’s innate design sensibility, project management skills, technical resourcefulness and infectious sense of humor has made him a natural leader within the firm and a champion for thoughtfully designed and beautifully detailed spaces throughout the Philadelphia region. Never one to shy away from complex site challenges, Brad is as passionate about the form and aesthetic quality of urban sites as he is about protecting and enhancing the natural environment. Brad’s favorite projects combine the two: Hawthorne Park in South Philadelphia, Iovance Biotherapeutics at the Navy Yard, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s New Patient Tower. Taking inspiration from natural places he loves to visit – Adirondacks, Maine, Arizona to name a few – each of these projects creates spaces for respite and nourishment for both people and creatures who inhabit the world with us.

When not in the office much of Brad’s energy goes into restoring his 1940’s house, designing and constructing an ever-expanding chicken coop for his small flock, and expanding the native plant habitat including rain gardens and pollinator-friendly gardens.

Congratulations to Brad!

May 16, 2022

GROUND RECONSIDERED WELCOMES SARAH ENDRISS

Community. It’s at the heart of our work at Ground Reconsidered. We take immense pride in the depth and talent of our extraordinary staff and are excited to welcome our new senior associate Sarah Endriss, ASLA to the firm. Sarah brings 25+ years of experience in the fields of landscape architecture, historic preservation, and community planning. Her passion for place and nature shows in what she does: connecting people with each other through their shared environments, and fostering appreciation, understanding, and respect of the natural world.

Prior to joining Ground Reconsidered, Sarah was principal of Asarum Land Design, where she focused on socially engaged/participatory design and ecological stewardship. Sarah’s work at the John B. Kelly Elementary School is emblematic of her aspirations. “The students and families in this community had so few opportunities outdoors…by creating spaces that children can play, learn and grow, the community wins. A project like this demonstrates that sustainability, and beauty, is not only attainable, but something communities should expect.” At Kelly Green, the playground and garden will incorporate green stormwater strategies, increasing habitat and biodiversity and restoring local ecology.

Sarah’s knowledge, enthusiasm, experience and professional relationships will be fully integrated in her work at Ground Reconsidered. An educator at heart, Sarah serves as adjunct professor at Jefferson University, where she has taught courses in local flora and plant community ecology, soils, landscape ecology, and sustainable design.

We are delighted to welcome Sarah to the award-winning Ground Reconsidered team and are confident that she will inspire us all.

May 2, 2022

CONTEXT MAGAZINE

For a good read, check out the latest edition of CONTEXT MAGAZINE, published by the Philadelphia chapter of the AIA. BIG things are happening in Philadelphia!

 

April 22, 2022

Iovance Biotherapeutics at 300 Rouse Boulevard was a finalist in the SBN Excellence in GIS Awards 2022

Ground Reconsidered’s project, Iovance Biotherapeutics at 300 Rouse Boulevard, was among five finalists this year vying for an Excellence in GSI Award presented by the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia.

After extensive evaluation, Iovance Biotherapeutics, Inc. chose the Philadelphia Navy Yard to transform a vacant lot into its new LEED Gold late-stage biotechnology facility for the commercial and clinical production of cancer immunotherapies based on tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) technology. A smart, forward-thinking building and site design relates to the innovation happening within the building and greater Navy Yard district.

From the parking lot, where most employees and visitors arrive, the building wraps a central courtyard on three sides and is open to the parking lot. Early in the design process, the decision was made to celebrate stormwater management. In place of a traditional corporate courtyard, the entire courtyard space is a bioretention basin. Instead of an extensive green roof that would not be seen or experienced, roof runoff is managed via the basin in the courtyard, central to the daily arrival experience. In anticipation of future development of the parking lot, runoff is managed using a subsurface retention basin located with the intent to avoid removal during future development phases.

The planting palette that we developed was carefully chosen to provide biodiversity and habitat using native and adaptive species, primarily for insects and birds, while being resistant to deer grazing habits at the Navy Yard. Native trees, shrubs and other plants were selected to thrive and provide an eco-rich landscape, while also being low-maintenance in a dynamic floodplain. Now an established landscape, the planting areas only need maintenance attention a few time during the year.

Along with Ground Reconsidered, the planning and design team included DIGSAU Architects and Pennoni Engineers. Gattuso Development Partners was the client.

 

 

April 21, 2022

City of Wilmington and West Side Grows Officially Open an Innovative New Community-Designed Playground at Cool Spring Park

For the past five years, Ground Reconsidered has worked the City of Wilmington and West Side Grows Together to bring this project to life.  The community in Wilmington’s west side neighborhoods previously identified park improvements as one of their highest priorities. Through a series of public meetings and activities hosted by Ground Reconsidered, we collected data and developed the master plan with ideas and inspiration from the students who attend the nearby school. For more information and insight, check out the following article.

November 12, 2021

Ground Reconsidered will be part of the design team to “re-imagine” the Benjamin Franklin Parkway

Ground Reconsidered is proud to announce that we are a member of the design team, led by Design Workshop, that has been selected to “re-imagine” the iconic Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The goal of the project is to create a world-class public realm plan for a people-centric Parkway for the future. This past summer the City held an Ideas Workshop, during which the three finalist design teams presented ideas and inspiration for modernizing and pedestrianizing the Parkway. The winning team was selected through a competitive process led by the City of Philadelphia and supported by Drexel University’s Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation. The project is made possible by a grant from the William Penn Foundation.

As stated by Mayor Jim Kenney, “The Benjamin Franklin Parkway is Philadelphia’s grand boulevard, a historic cultural epicenter that has the opportunity to become a vibrant, bustling public space for all Philadelphians, the team selected to carry out this work is as bold, spectacular, and rooted in local pride as the Parkway itself.”

The project is scheduled to commence early in 2022 with design and community engagement and is expected to last 12-18 months.

 

September 2, 2021

Celebrating 30 Years of Design Excellence

March 29, 2021

Maplewood Mall receives APBP Project of the Year Award

Maplewood Mall has been awarded the Project of the Year for 2021 from the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (apbp).

Maplewood Mall is located in Philadelphia’s Central Germantown Business District. The mall, bookended by two public plazas, is lined by two and three story buildings with ground floor storefronts. The mall was created from Maplewood Avenue in the 1970’s by converting the original street into the curbless pedestrian-scale street it is today. No major physical improvements had been made since its inception, and the mall’s infrastructure was poor condition. The goal of the reconstruction was to improve the physical condition of the mall and utilize a community driven design for the roadway and public plazas that supports the needs of the business owners and residents while re-invigorating this once vibrant community hub.

Through a series of public meetings and presentations, Ground Reconsidered and the project’s prime consultant worked with the community to develop a vision for the site. We employed our design experience to implement a low-maintenance infrastructure and put together placemaking strategies to promote the success of the project’s design.

Our congratulations go out to the community and to all the individuals and firm that were involved in making this project a reality.