O2 Design is a landscape architecture firm whose focus is on design, master planning, and land/environmental planning with an emphasis on integrating strong design ideals into each project. Our founder and design director Tom Oslund is one of the leading design landscape architects in the country and was awarded the ASLA design medal in 2021. The firm's intent is to affect each site by expressing the values and impressions it inherently possesses while cultivating its future potential. Projects range from large corporate campuses and university master plans to small private gardens, and residences and the firm has worked both nationally and internationally.
Our team prides itself in our ease in establishing rapport with clients and team members and has maintained a strong working relationship with past clients, continuing to provide design and planning services as needs arise. We believe that open and positive communication with the client and other professionals at the table from the onset of a new project allows our team to have a rich discussion throughout the entire design process.
Scope of Work: Master planning and landscape site design for commercial, residential, industrial, institutional, public, and private clients.

Pritzker Museum, Library, and Archive, Somers, Wisconsin

 

Located on the southern border of Wisconsin, on a 287-acre undulating prairie landscape close to Lake Michigan at the high point of the road, the museum is easily visible, making arrival a memorable experience. The project aims to enhance public understanding of military history and the sacrifices made to maintain freedom.
The site plan is thoughtfully designed around a circular rampart landform, reminiscent of a battlefield trench, with the museum and associated program elements at the center. The circular path is intersected by two formal allees running east-west and two tree-lined esplanades running north-south, which provide a grid framework. Permeable parking lots, stormwater detention ponds, wet meadows, and restored prairies are integrated into the site. Overall, the museum's design works together to create a powerful and unforgettable experience for visitors.

Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital,Lake Forest, Illinois

Embracing the bold opportunities afforded by the existing 300-acre site, the campus design utilizes grading and stormwater management to create a rich landscape setting that gives the hospital a sense of place and an established position within. Using an existing descent in grade across the site and employing strategies for sustainable stormwater collection, the design situates the hospital over a two-leveled reclaimed wetland. Drumlins are situated in a reclaimed native grassland biome with associated stormwater conveyance channels that daylight into the reclaimed wetlands. As the visitor approaches the hospital, courtyards, and gardens welcome them at the entries. Although these spaces employ more formal designs, their plant material is reminiscent of the species found in the reclaimed native areas, cohesively binding the site together. As part of the campus design plan and the health and wellness initiatives of the hospital, the design introduced an extensive series of trails to connect the various landscape spaces across the entire site. Together these trails provide nearly five miles of walking loops to be utilized by the hospital and the surrounding community of Lake Forest. The design of the new Northwestern Lake Forest Campus is a model of symbiosis between site, program, architecture, and mission, creating an environment of health and wellness that resonates with all who visit this unique facility. This bold design manifests the hospital's mission of health and wellness in the
built environment.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, in partnership with the Walker Art Center, commissioned O2 Design on the renovation of the 11-acre Sculpture Garden which first opened in 1988. Described as "one of the finest outdoor spaces in the country for displaying sculpture" (New York Times), the garden was a major cultural destination, however it was in need of
serious renovation.
O2 created a framework for the Sculpture Garden renovation project which included the revitalization of existing trees and plants, replacement of deteriorating infrastructure, a plan to reconsider the existing Cowles Conservatory, and a redesign of the Walker Art Center Open Lawn to correspond to the Sculpture Garden to the North.
The Walker Art Center was an open and continuous sloping lawn. The design proposed breaking up the lawn space and creating mounded sculpture rooms that reflected the design of the four hedged rooms of the Sculpture Garden. The sculpture rooms would not only display works of art but offer views into the existing garden as well as of the Minneapolis skyline. The mounds themselves have dynamic sloping sides that are planted with native shrubs and act as a foil to the highly architectural structuring of the mounds. A mixed deciduous forest provides definition to the residential edges and conceals the entrance to the parking garage while strengthening the concept of structural and natural synchronism.