Firms & Projects: Hough Beck and Baird Inc.

Combining landscape architecture, urban design and land use planning, Hough Beck & Baird, Seattle, Wash., is a W.B.E./D.B.E. certified firm that provides services to corporations, governmental agencies and architectural/engineering firms throughout the Pacific Northwest. The firm is licensed in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. [Editor?EUR??,,????'???s note: Beck and Baird are no longer partners, although the firm still retains the Baird name.]

What sets them apart

Versatility, in a word. Their scope of work includes: athletic fields, civic facilities, community outreach, grant founding, institutions, mixed use development, port facilities, recreation, residential, transportation, and utility facilities .

Project: Veterans Cemetery

Veterans Cemetery

Beck & Baird was chosen to lead a team of landscape architects, architects, and engineers to develop a master plan and construction documents for the first Veterans Cemetery near Eagle in Ada County, Idaho. The cemetery comprises three parcels that join to create one irregularly-shaped piece of property totaling 76.52 acres.

Veterans Cemetery

The land on which the cemetery now lies had been undeveloped, though the local people using the vacant land for hiking and biking had made two track roads, foot paths and bike trails. Beck & Baird team is charged with developing a facility with statewide and regional significance within guidelines and budget constraints mandated by numerous federal and state agencies. Scheduled for completion in fall 2004, the $8.4 million project is developing into a truly unique part of Idaho. Owner: Idaho Div. of Veterans Services Client: Idaho Division of Public Works.

Project: Blue Cross Corporate Headquarters

Blue Cross

Blue Cross Corporate Headquarters, Meridian, Idaho, a 30-acre corporate office park project.

Blue Cross

Ponds and stream served irrigation and stormwater runoff and retention functions in addition to aesthetics at the Blue Cross Corp. Headquarters. medical facility, Idaho. Extensive plantings, a 500 foot amenity stream and two one-acre ponds help to mitigate the stormwater impacts from the parking lots and buildings necessary to house the large Blue Cross facility.

Blue Cross

Project: Broadway-Chinden Connector

Broadway-Chinden

Boise city officials were concerned that strip commercial uses would begin to emerge along the Broadway-Chinden Connector as the dominant development pattern, thus separating the central business district from the Boise River and from the River Street neighborhood. The newly constructed Connector considerably improves automobile access to downtown Boise, particularly along the largely undeveloped and underdeveloped properties adjacent to it. This project exemplifies a progressive approach to highway design. The basic landscape design, with maintenance considerations and state of the art sprinkler irrigation designs, is intended to provide a safe yet unique and pleasant surrounding for the built environment.

Broadway-Chinden

The project consists of 27 acres of various levels of landscaping and wetland development. The project has been developed in close coordination with the city to assure ease of maintenance and proper design to meet the park department?EUR??,,????'???s standards.

President: Ms. Colie Hough-Beck, ASLA
Senior vice president: Fred Beck, ASLA
Vice president: Juliet Vong, ASLA
Senior associate: Jim Howard, ASLA
Associate: Dean Koonts, MLA