We believe that historic preservation is about unearthing community narratives.
It is never just about saving an old building. It is about listening to the land and the people who shaped it, and helping communities rediscover the stories that already belong to them. Whether we are working on a small neighborhood park or helping a city imagine its future, our goal is the same: weave culture, ecology, and history together to create places that feel deeply rooted and alive.
Beyond Historic Buildings
Historic preservation often begins with structures, but landscapes carry stories just as powerful. Trails worn by generations, irrigation ditches that shaped settlement patterns, rail lines that fueled industry, or orchards that once fed a town, all reveal how communities lived and worked.
Historic landscapes provide context. They show how a place evolved, how people interacted with their environment, and how identity was formed. Sometimes there are no buildings left, only traces in the land. Those traces matter.
In our work, we document and interpret these layered stories. From Cultural Landscape Reports to National Register nominations, we help communities understand what they already have before deciding what comes next.
During the 1930’s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) stationed at Leeds, Utah worked to construct a series of erosion control features to protect the Washington Fields Dam, just outside of St. George, Utah. Formerly owned by the BLM, the land is being transferred to a private developer. As part of this process, Io was been retained by the Washington County to document these historic features before they are destroyed. The features include large earthen berms, with rock spreader features, along with gully traps and small berms in series. All these features were designed and constructed to slow the movement of water and disperse it across the site, minimizing erosion.
The Narrative of a Community
Every place holds collective memory. It lives in family stories, community traditions, street names, and forgotten infrastructure.
When communities share stories, they create a living archive. That archive becomes a design tool. It reveals what residents value, what they miss, and what they hope to carry forward.
We’ve seen this while working in communities across Utah, including ongoing planning work for town centers and historic districts. Residents often tell stories about places that no longer exist. Those stories can guide design decisions more clearly than any trend or style.
Io worked with the City of Logan to develop design standards and guidelines for residential and commercial buildings, as well as sites located within the Center Street Historic District. These standards function as a benchmark for the preservation, treatment, and new construction of sites within the historic district. Based on the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Preservation, this document includes clear written standards relevant to Logan’s historic district, along with helpful exhibits and illustrations. The codifying document is used by the city’s planning staff and the Historic Preservation Committee. It was designed to be user-friendly, easy to interpret, and full of helpful information for property owners.
Connecting Past, Place, and Community
Shared history builds belonging. When people recognize their own stories in a park, plaza, or street, they care for it differently.
Building this sense of shared history through the built environment doesn’t need to be overstated. It might appear in reused materials, interpretive signage, planting palettes tied to agricultural heritage, or circulation patterns that echo historic movement on the site. These gestures create civic pride without feeling forced.
Building on our foundational work in Ogden’s Nine Rails Creative District, Io LandArch was tasked with the streetscape design along the 400 block of 25th Street. Our approach was to reflect the historical and cultural essence of the area by reintroducing railway elements into the landscape. The streetscapes are lined with native and water-wise planting, and feature innovative art platforms made from recycled railroad rails. These installations not only honor the historical significance of the railway in Ogden but also serve as functional art pieces that enrich the streetscape and invigorate the district’s overall aesthetic.
Design as Storytelling
Design is a language. Materials, forms, and spatial relationships can communicate history, sometimes even more powerfully than text.
We begin every project by asking what stories a place holds. We look for historic maps, oral histories, aerial photography, and cultural patterns. We walk the site. We talk with residents. We study what came before.
Then we translate those stories into design.
Sometimes that means preserving historic features. Sometimes it means reinterpreting them. Sometimes it means simply making space for stories to be told again.
The result is what we call a “super-natural” place. Not supernatural in a mystical sense, but places so resonant and rooted that they feel inevitable.
Our team speaking with a community member while doing fieldwork for the Spanish Fork Reconnaissance Level Survey.
Design as Storytelling
Design is a language. Materials, forms, and spatial relationships can communicate history, sometimes even more powerfully than text.
We begin every project by asking what stories a place holds. We look for historic maps, oral histories, aerial photography, and cultural patterns. We walk the site. We talk with residents. We study what came before.
Then we translate those stories into design.
Sometimes that means preserving historic features. Sometimes it means reinterpreting them. Sometimes it means simply making space for stories to be told again.
The result is what we call a “super-natural” place. Not supernatural in a mystical sense, but places so resonant and rooted that they feel inevitable.
At Ogden Business Exchange Commons, in addition to documenting the site’s expansive livestock pens, loading chutes, art deco watering troughs, and patterned concrete, Io created a development plan that worked to preserve and highlight some of the most unique elements of the site such as a series of concrete loading ramps.
