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2006 MASLA Merit Award: Planning

Whitefish Bay Scenic Byway
Owner: Hiawatha National Forest

This Enhancement Plan sets a model for how the US Forest Service can update existing byway and park facilities to meet contemporary standards for accessibility, sustainability and contextual design. Combining knowledge of circulation, materials, history and design, this project demonstrates how landscape architects can lead government agencies in resource management and aesthetics.

Working with Forest Service staff, stakeholders, and landscape architecture students from Michigan State University, the project landscape architects led an interactive planning and design process to express locally-held notions of “place” in materials, style and identity graphics. The designs move the byway beyond the “standard government issue” treatments to a new aesthetic rooted in the area’s handcrafted building traditions and natural history. The user-friendly illustrative plan will serve as a funding and implementation tool for the Forest Service and a promotional guide for byway stakeholders.