Saiki Design, Firms of the Upper Mid-West
Madison, Wisconsin (main), Milwaukee, WI & Boulder, CO
Saiki Design is an award winning, specialty landscape architecture firm specializing in landscape architecture and sustainable site design. Organized in 1989, the company provides services to both public and private clientele with project locations throughout the Upper Midwest.
Our work spans multiple sectors and our team has delivered high-quality design services for public, private and joint-venture clients. Our built work can be found in botanical gardens, retail development, corporate campuses, university campuses, mixed use and residential developments. We pride ourselves on the ability to work from the master plan scale down to the detailed design, where the personal experience of a space and its surroundings comes to life. We do not apply previously developed solutions, although we lean heavily upon the collective wisdom and experience of our own staff, our collaborators and clients. We are an office with over 100 years of combined staff experience; our team is comprised of licensed landscape architects, LEED accredited professionals, landscape designers with degrees in landscape architecture, master gardeners and student interns. We know that we are practicing in a world that is constantly changing and we are committed to continued learning and teaching.
Bee Branch Creek Restoration, Dubbuque, Iowa
Saiki Design worked with engineers at Strand Associates and IIW on a complex project that balanced the functional requirements of stormwater conveyance and storage in an area prone to large flood events. The project daylighted an existing storm sewer, removed a large portion of the existing city storm infrastructure, and created a linear corridor with an open channel for stormwater management and conveyance. The team developed a publicly vetted master plan that responded to the city's needs and desires, allowing the corridor to transition from unprogrammed greenspace to a pedestrian district, reflecting the neighborhood shift from a commercial redevelopment zone to predominantly single-family residential lots. Saiki Design was responsible for master planning and community visioning and for the subsequent design of multiple construction document packages.
Bell Labs Corporate Headquarters, DeForest, Wisconsin
Saiki Design worked with architects from Potter Lawson on a corporate headquarters for Bell Labs, a world leader in rodent control technology, who relocated their office from Madison to a heavily wooded, remnant oak savanna site adjacent to their manufacturing facilities to realize a consolidated corporate campus. Saiki Design worked closely with the architectural team to site the building in order to mitigate impacts to steep slopes, preserve as many of the existing mature oaks as possible, and create a marriage of site and building that captured the vision and goals of the client.
Saiki Design crafted an entry drive sequence that enhanced wayfinding for users and visitors to specific destinations within the Bell Labs campus and created an elevated entry landscape character. A broad landscape vision for restoring native shortgrass prairie, preserving and enhancing the oak savanna and integrating plantings around building entries and amenity spaces was overlaid on the office building site. Saiki Design was responsible for innovative design related to site development, including an elevated wood deck and an extensive boardwalk system through the oak woodland that integrated respite nodes for employee health and well-being. Saiki Design prepared construction documents for site planting restoration and design and specialty site amenity areas.
CUNA Mutual Group Headquarters, Madison, Wisconsin
Saiki Design worked with Eppstein Uhen Architects on a comprehensive plan and subsequent site design projects for the CUNA Mutual Group campus. The plan sought to prioritize pedestrian spaces and create a campus environment with buildings framing a large, re-imagined campus center free of surface parking and vehicular circulation. Intentional at-grade pedestrian connections from the campus center to the building entries were designed with input from client user groups.
Saiki Design collaborated on the master plan and provided site planning and design for the a new building and underground parking ramp. The site accommodates both day-to-day function and spaces for large events, providing a flexibility in use that allows the space to adapt to the nuanced needs of the client. Close to the building, intimate seating areas provide spaces for small meetings or informal gatherings and transition to larger gathering spaces farther away from the building. Lush planting and landscape restoration strategies hides the demarcation between above-structure and at-grade landscape spaces. Site stormwater is harvested and re-used for irrigation and a 3,000-square-foot bioretention basin provides additional capacity to capture and infiltrate stormwater on site.
The project contains a number of innovative sustainability strategies and is pursuing Parksmart and LEED Silver certification.
