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Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc., Landscape Architects (MVVA) is known across North America and internationally for innovative landscapes that address contemporary social and environmental issues while also achieving, as with the George W. Bush Presidential Library, a timeless style that appeals to a broad range of the American public. MVVA has previously worked with First Lady Laura Bush on the redesign of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House, a project completed during the first term of George W. Bush's presidency. MVVA has a unique approach to design—we start each project with an understanding of the project site, and the multi-layered context that has been shaped through a history of natural and urban processes. In grappling with the challenges and opportunities that each project presents, MVVA works to create urban spaces, landscapes and gardens that are exciting and provocative to be in. The firm's body of work ranges from public parks in Toronto, Charleston, New York, Pittsburgh and Boston, to University campuses, including master planning projects at the University of Washington, Cornell, Yale, Penn, Harvard, Princeton and Vassar. Founded in 1982, and now with offices in Brooklyn, New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts, MVVA has received numerous awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), including the 2009 Design Honor Award for Teardrop Park, 2009 Planning and Analysis Honor Award for the Brooklyn Bridge Park Master Plan, 2008 Design Honor Award for the Boston Children's Museum Entry Landscape, 2008 Planning and Analysis Honor Award for the Lower Don Lands Project in Toronto, and the 2006 Design Excellence Award for Alumnae Valley at Wellesley College, a project that involved the same innovative joining of ecological and environmental recreation which are hallmarks of the George W. Bush Presidential Library project. Michael Van Valkenburgh was the 2003 recipient of the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Environmental Design and is a 1988 winner of the prestigious American Academy in Rome Prize. He has taught both full and part time at Harvard's Graduate School of Design since 1982. The key senior staff members working on the Library with Michael are firm Principals, Laura Solano and Matthew Urbanski, and Herb Sweeney, Associate and Project Manager. |
