MSLA

Watching spring turn to summer at Heartwood Preserve

Heartwood Omaha

It was an honor to have Betsy Frederick-Rothwell and Julia Diane Larson from UC Berkeley’s Environmental Design Archives at our office to gather a collection of drawings and models to be included in the Environmental Design Archives. Thanks to them, my partner Grace Amundson, and Tomoka Taniguchi, MSLA’s spring intern from UC Berkeley, who has been helping prepare decades of work for a new forever home. Cheers to all the people who’ve had a hand in this work.

We’re honored to announce that the Heartwood Preserve Greenway System in Omaha, Nebraska, has been named the 2025 Innovation by Design Award winner by Fast Company in the category of Sustainability and Circular Design.

Fast Company’s competition is among the most rigorous in the design world with their IOD Awards celebrating “big ideas, meticulously thought-out details, and a clear viewpoint about how we live now – and how it could be better”.

Heartwood Preserve reimagines flood-control infrastructure as public art. Fourteen sculptural limestone vessels transform essential stormwater infrastructure into an experience of landscape, ecology, climate resilience, and wonder.

We’re deeply grateful to our client, , and to for recognizing the power of landscape architecture to shape meaningful, enduring places.

Read more about the project at the links in bio.