Paved with Good Intentions: 5 Reasons not to ‘Zeroscape’ your yard
With the ongoing water crisis, we are starting to see a lot of formerly lush landscapes suddenly transformed into barren rock-scapes under the guise of water conservation. While these newfound converts to environmentalism are well intentioned, doing a rock-only landscape is a
Five Lessons for Community Revitalization from Historic Home Restoration
As a Historic Home Restoration survivor, veteran community organizer, Landscape Architect/Architect, and Urban Designer, it has occurred to me numerous times over the past 2 decades just how much restoring a historic home is a microcosm of community revitalization. Historic
Washington Square – Site of the Salt Lake City and County Building
Washington Square is the entire 10-acre block surrounding the Salt Lake City and County Building located between State Street and 200 East, and 400 South and 500 South in Salt Lake City, Utah. Washington Square is significant for its historical uses including the original 1847
Designing for TV: A Crash Course with Extreme Makeover
We recently had the opportunity to volunteer, by providing Landscape Architectural services for two very deserving families, on the hit TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”! The episodes are 1002 and 1003 and we are looking forward to seeing them air in January 2020 on
Trial by Fire: How I Became a Historic Preservation & Community Revitalization Advocate
It was a crisp, late winter evening. We were just settling in to watch a movie at our condo in Logan when the phone rang. It was one of those calls that you don’t ever want to receive. It was the Ogden Fire Department. The house that we had purchased just 2 weeks earl
(re)PARK on Historic 25th
Io Landscape Architecture, in conjunction with Carbon Architects, hosted the first ever PARK(ing) Day in Ogden on September 20, 2013. Watch the brief video below, where our Principal, Shalae Larsen outlines the project concepts and goals. Special thanks to Johnson Media Co
Reinventing Community Engagement
Over the course of 20 years of professional and individual community engagement, we’ve been to a LOT of different types of public meetings. The best ones are creative and fun with active involvement of participants. They actually work to make a project better. The worst one
Back to Our Roots
We’re proud to unveil our new logo! The name Io stems from Greek mythology. Io was a demi-goddess represented by a white heifer. As a woman-founded design practice we deliberately chose the name based on its strong female archetype and also its agricultural symbolism. W
The Four Types of Historic Landscapes
The documentation and preservation of Historical Landscapes represents a relatively new and frequently misunderstood branch of the preservation movement. Many historic landscapes are being lost before their significance is recognized. Historic landscapes are important because
Lester Park Design Competition
The results of the Lester Park design competition have been announced, and the winner is… “Community Tapestry” by Io Design Collaborative’s own Shalae Larsen with team members Jake Alex McIntire and James Argo! The competition was put on by the Utah Chapter of the America