Rebranding a business can be a big undertaking for firms of any size, and the structure of a rebranding endeavor can take many forms, such as a thorough graphic design revamp of logos and a website or a completely new name, location, or ownership model. But what does it take to re-envision one’s own practice? What kinds of questions should firms be asking of themselves and their marketing departments, and how does a small-scale rebrand differ from a full-scale overhaul? LAM talked to three firms about their approaches to rebranding and what they’ve learned. Interviews have been edited and condensed.(more…)
Martha Schwartz, FASLA, and her business partner and husband, Markus Jatsch, last year relocated from London to Brooklyn, though the London office remains the headquarters of their firm, Martha Schwartz Partners. Schwartz continues to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design—though her projects have taken her firm just about everywhere but the United States. James Trulove, a former editor of LAM, who has known Schwartz for years, joined her and Jatsch, who is trained as an architect, for a conversation to find out what prompted the move and where Schwartz is directing her design and teaching now.
James Trulove: You now have offices in New York, London, and Shanghai. I guess there are many opportunities for a landscape architect in China given the enormous amount of construction that is taking place. What is it like to work there?
Schwartz: Unfortunately the quality of much of the built work is poor, (more…)
The formative influences and expansive body of work of Richard Haag, FASLA, are on full display in this multipart oral history presented by the Cultural Landscape Foundation, and are an excellent accompaniment to Brice Maryman’s lively review of The Landscape Architecture of Richard Haag: From Modern Space to Urban Ecological Design by Thaïsa Way in the May issue (“Once and Always the Radical”). In this interview from 2004, Haag narrates his beginnings at his father’s country nursery to his emergence as a landscape architect to become one of the most well-known names in the profession.
