A modern approach to suburban development ties agricultural traditions to the Midwest landscape
Minneapolis, Minnesota based Coen + Partners is a landscape architecture, urban design and planning firm with a modern approach that is influenced by regionalism.
It is our intent to create interfaces between cultural and natural systems with lasting social and ecological impacts. Designed spaces can articulate and highlight physical relationships in ways that bring meaning and beauty to man-altered environments.Coen + Partners headed the planning and design for the Mayo Woodlands, a thoughtful reinterpretation of a typical residential subdivision near Rochester, Minnesota. The firm altered the inherited street and lot layout with four interventions: first, native prairie grasses overlay the site creating a uniform natural field; second, building sites for each residence were carved out of the prairie in an orthogonal layout deemphasizing the curving cul-de-sacs; third, traditional agricultural windbreaks of pine trees were laid across the site from east to west; and fourth, a series of low east/west walls and fences delineate paths connecting the neighborhoods. In addition, the colors of the houses are to graduate from off-white to grey and black as one moves through the site towards the river.
Firm: Coen + Partners
Firm: Salmela Architecture & Design
Firm: Altus Architecture
Link: Mayo Woodlands
Link: ASLA Award
Article: Star Tribune (registration required)
Unfortunately, the full vision for may not come to fruition as the Mayo family is not fully supportive of the final design concept, particularly the minimal architectural design of the proposed homes. The Mayo's had envisioned designs in the vain of Jackson Meadow, another project by Coen + Partners with Salmela Architecture & Design. Unlike the green-field site of the Mayo Woodlands, the context for Jackson Meadow is an existing historic village.
Mayo Woodlands, a collaboration between Coen + Partners, Salmela Architecture & Design, and Altus Architecture, is the first of three new communities the Mayo family has commissioned. The road and lot layout for Mayo Woodlands, created by others prior to the involvement of the design team, follows a typical suburban model with large lots and cul-de-sacs. Without the possibility of altering lot or road configuration Coen + Partners employed a strict geometry of abstracted agricultural patterns, east-west tree lines, fences and structures to claim the chaotic landscape of roads and lots. The curving roads, slicing through this geometry become a compellingly positive experience. Subtle shifts in paths, vegetation and architecture occur along designated lines moving towards the river. This holistic approach embraces architecture, land, solar orientation, and past-use to retrofit and change a standard plan into a model community for ex-urban development.
Above and below, parts of the Coen + Partners plan (right) is contrasted with the previously devised scheme by engineering firm, McGhie & Betts(left).
Coen + Partners was awarded a Progressive Architecture citation in 2003 for the Mayo Woodlands, only the third time a landscape architecture firm has won in 50 years.
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