Integrated design firm LPA acquires LdG Landscape Architects

Award-winning San Diego team will join LPA’s established landscape practice and expand design efforts in mixed use, education, commercial and healthcare projects.

As part of its long-term strategy to grow by investing in talent, LPA has acquired LdG Landscape Architects, a San Diego studio focused on a research-based approach to developing active and meaningful outdoor spaces for people.

LdG founder and design director Rocio Gertler will join LPA as a Principal and Design Director and her team members, Tommy King and Julia Roberts, will merge with LPA’s existing landscape practice. Under the leadership of directors Richard Bienvenu and Kari Kikuta, LPA’s landscape team has grown to more than 30 designers in California and Texas, working within LPA’s integrated practice to push the boundaries of innovation, creativity and sustainability.

With LPA, the LdG design team will influence a wide variety of projects across LPA’s six studios in California and Texas, including mixed-use, K-12, higher education, commercial, healthcare, and civic environments.

“The LdG team will be a tremendous addition to LPA,” says LPA chief executive officer Wendy Rogers. “The more we got to know each other, the more I came to appreciate our shared passion for a more collaborative design process.”

LdG Landscape Architects is a seven-year-old boutique firm with an established track record of designing impactful, functional, and responsible spaces. Recent projects include the IDEA 1 in San Diego’s East Village, a mix of residential, retail and co-working spaces designed around a central courtyard, and the renovation of The Summit at Rancho Bernardo, which included the creation of amenity-rich spaces connecting a cluster of large one-story buildings.

In July, LdG completed the first phase of the renovation of a San Diego medical office building for Kaiser Permanente, featuring a public square designed to engage the community in different ways.

“LdG’s work is exciting, illustrating the different ways landscape architects can impact a project,” says LPA Director of Landscape Architecture Kari Kikuta. “Their emphasis on the human experience is a perfect fit for LPA.”

LdG and LPA designers have already worked together on several projects and the two firms share many core philosophies, including a focus on creating memorable human experiences regardless of the project type, size and budget, Gertler says.

“We both believe that design is really for the user,” Gertler says. “To do our best work, we really need to understand the user, the site, the surroundings and the client, and that requires research and collaboration.”

LdG also brings a shared focus on sustainability. LPA was the largest firm in the country to meet the AIA 2030 Commitment’s energy reduction target the last two years.

“LPA’s sustainable approach on every project is admirable and being part of a team that believes and shares this value in every design is very inspiring,” Gertler says. “We are really looking forward to this process.”

As an integrated design firm, LPA brings together engineers, landscape architects, interior designers and researchers into one design team. Ninety-three percent of LPA projects involve landscape architects, who play a key role in activating outdoor spaces and connecting landscape to the larger project goals. “Their talent touches almost everything we do,” Rogers says.

About
Founded in 1965, LPA specializes in creating innovative environments that work better, do more with less and improve people’s lives. An integrated design firm with six locations in California and Texas, LPA’s team includes more than 400 in-house architects, master planners, engineers, interior designers, landscape architects and research analysts, working across a wide array of sectors. For more information, visit lpadesignstudios.com.