Listening builds success

HOLDING COURT: From left, Ashley Iannuccilli, junior partner, Tim Brown, junior partner, and Kris Bradner, owner and senior partner of Birchwood Design Group LLC, in the courtyard of the new Johnson & Wales University engineering and science building. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO
HOLDING COURT: From left, Ashley Iannuccilli, junior partner, Tim Brown, junior partner, and Kris Bradner, owner and senior partner of Birchwood Design Group LLC, in the courtyard of the new Johnson & Wales University engineering and science building. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

The art of creating a well-used public space begins with good ears. Birchwood Design Group, a relatively young company, listens closely to what its clients want in a new landscape or a refreshed one.

This month, the opening of the new Johnson & Wales University engineering and science building will bring hundreds of people daily through its natural areas and inset courtyard.

The company partners listened closely to what the university wanted in this space, which includes a courtyard at the Clifford Street entrance and another landscaped area closer to the back entrance off Friendship Street, according to Kris Bradner, who co-founded the company along with Arthur Eddy.

The two areas, particularly the one on Clifford, are intended to be gathering areas, not just pass-through accesses to the building.

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“We talked with the university at length about what was going to be in the courtyard and how it was going to be used,” Bradner said.

To encourage students and people in the city to enter and stay in the space, the team included a large community table and benches made of teak and planted trees in the courtyard, which will mature into a shady canopy. Other details include large screens set up to hide the air conditioning units for the building. Flowering vines crawling up the lattice will soon obscure the utilities from view.

At the rear of the building, the bike racks selected by Birchwood have a modern look with a practical feature. At the top, a small wooden shelf will hold things for the bicyclist locking up.

All of the little details, as well as the bigger picture view of what a site could become, are a part of the process in landscape architecture and planning, Bradner said.

“Our profession can be very deceiving,” she said. “There are garden designers, landscape designers. What we do is a bigger, broader picture of site design and master planning and phasing.”

Recently completed projects by Birchwood include the Newport Yachting Center Marina grounds, including the new entrance to The Bohlin event facility, as well as the most recent landscaping at the American Locomotive Works building, a former brownfield site.

The company began in 2011, when Eddy and Bradner, who had worked together previously, combined talents. Eddy had a background in construction, and Bradner in landscape architecture. They launched in 2011, when construction-related industries were at a low point, and kept the company lean for the first several years.

They initially rented space from an architect, for example, and their first employee started as a contractor. Now they lease their own offices and employ eight people, including the four owners.

Five years in, Birchwood Design Group is moving ahead. “As our firm is growing and developing, the projects get better and better,” Bradner said. “Our process gets better and better.” •

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