On the Road to China

Foster Conant will design a section of the Shenfu New Town city in Fushun, China named “Discovery Lake District,” a 10-block-by-10-block site with a central lake as its focal point. The Orlando, Fla., office of AECOM has been engaged by Foster Conant to assist with some of the planning tasks associated with the project.
Rendering provided by AECOM.

Landscape architecture firms, like many in the design professions, have struggled during this recession. Now, just when the U.S. economy showed signs of recovery, Europe began seriously slumping.

The PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) are hurting prospects for recovery. Now, as this is being written in the first week of May, the economic collapse of Greece and the pessimism over the bailout efforts of the nations of the European Union to ease Greece’s profound debt has suddenly turned a bull stock market in the U.S. to a wide spread sell-off on Wall Street.

For landscape architecture firms, who of course often do design work overseas, you go where the work is.

Orlando, Fla.-based Foster Conant & Associates has been selected by a California entertainment group to provide site planning and landscape architectural design services for a city master planning effort in Fushun, China. Known as Shenfu New Town, the project includes high-rise office and residential buildings, a cultural center, government facilities, an entertainment district, hotel and a 20,000-seat arena.

Foster Conant is engaged to design a section of the city named “Discovery Lake District,” a 10-block-by-10-block site with a central lake as its focal point.

According to Foster Conant Principal Richard Conant, FASLA, construction on Discovery Lake District will begin sometime later in 2010.

Foster Conant & Associates is a 12-person site-specific landscape architectural firm managed by principals Richard Conant, FASLA, Keith Oropeza, ASLA and René Ramos, RLA.

The Orlando, Fla., office of AECOM has been engaged by Foster Conant to assist with some of the planning tasks associated with the project. Note: AECOM, a global leader in technical and management support,  “absorbed” EDAW into AECOM Design + Planning professionals.