Schmidt Design Group, Inc.
San Diego

The Schmidt Design Group, Inc., founded in 1983 by landscape architect and planner Glen Schmidt, FASLA, has received more than 75 local, state, and national awards for design excellence and technical competence. The firm, headquartered in San Diego, with a branch office in the Sacramento area, has 10 employees, including four licensed landscape architects (Calif., Nevada, Ariz.) and three LEED accredited professionals. Schmidt Design Group, Inc. has successfully created more than 200 public places and projects for 47 municipalities in the Southwest, plus hundreds of private sector places and projects.

Briercrest Park, La Mesa, Calif.
Schmidt Design Group, Inc. designed this 4.2-acre neighborhood park that emphasizes natural play. The park is adjacent to the Grossmont Healthcare District Library and Conference Center and serves as a healing environment. At the center of the park the landscape takes on a natural sculptural form. The “natural play” is centered around the dry creek and wetland. Water that falls onto the site is captured in a large dry creek bed that carries runoff into a central “wetland.” Additional opportunities for creative play and passive recreation are provided with “park pets,” the music garden, a butterfly garden, herb garden, swings, rolling turf mounds, picnic tables, benches, pedestrian bridges, an artful labyrinth and a stone climbing wall. Awards: Merit Award, ASLA San Diego, 2007; Orchid Award; Project of the Year, San Diego Chapter of the American Public Works Association, 2005

Cottonwood Creek Park, Encinitas, Calif.
This award winning eight-acre park offers open turf areas, tennis courts, a group picnic gazebo, a veteran’s memorial, a number of low-impact development features and a children’s play area. The creek was revegetated with native plants and provides bioremediation and flood control for 2,100 acres of watershed that flows into the park. Interpretive panels and tiles along a perimeter pathway give interesting facts about the watershed. The large play area incorporates local animal paw prints and references to the creek. In addition to the traditional play equipment is a nine-foot climbing boulder and water play feature designed by the firm. The project was one of the 150 projects accepted into the Sustainable Sites Initiative pilot program. Photo: John Durant

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