FISCHER & ASSOCIATES

Recent Awards

Recently, Fischer & Associates projects have been bestowed with several awards. Four noteworthy projects, Laurel Community Urban Design and Interactive Website, Peaks to Plains Park, BikeNet Bikeway Plan and Metra Trail Implementation, and a private residence in Billings, have received a number of 2001 Montana - Idaho ASLA awards in particular.

The studio at Fischer & Associates has been awarded the 2002 Billings Chamber of Commerce Business/Industry Award for established businesses. We at Fischer & Associates realize the awards would not have been possible without collaboration and tremendous support from the community, the design team, property owners and our clients. The awards remind us, once again, how fortunate Fischer & Associates is to be able to work in the community in which we live.

Laurel Community Urban Design and Interactive Website

ASLA Merit Award

The organization of the web-site provides an opportunity for the viewer to review numerous proposed plans and specific projects. The plans in the report and web-site are organized around four themes; Gateways, Parks, Trails and Green Spaces, Heritage Greenway, and South First Avenue Corridor. Unique aspects of the website and report include:

• High quality hand drawn and digital graphic illustrations of “what could be” utilizing a variety of digital and electronic media.

• Interactive maps and plans that link to specific project descriptions and illustrations.

• Displaying the products from othe consultants’ and the City Planner on the web-site.

• A web-site design that can be expanded and added to as the city develops other plans and projects.

• Simultaneous development of the graphic design concept for the printed report and web-site for communication that allowed a single document to work in two formats.

2002 Montana-Idaho ASLA Honor Award For Design

BikeNet Bikeway Plan and Metra Trail Implementation
ASLA Excellence Award in Planning Analysis

Adopted in 1995 by five local government units, BikeNet is the Comprehensive Bicycle Transportation Plan for the Billings Urban Area. The comprehensive document addresses bicycle facilites, policies and programs.

The Collective vision for Bikenet is to ..."connect our community not only in terms of bicycle transportation but also in terms of providing social and recreational opportunities for people of all ages and abilities on attractive parkways that include bicycle paths."

The plan includes very specific recommentations on funding, priorities and implementation. This helped assure the plan stayed "off the shelf" and was implemented.

Constructed in 1998, the Metra Segment of the Jim Dutcher Trail parallels the Yellowstone River from Yellowstone River Road in the Heights to Coulson Park. The Metra Trail, included two bridges and four underpasses. With the completion of the Downtown Connector, scheduled for construction 2001, a commuter connection between the Billings Heights Neighborhood with 30,000 residents and Downtown Billings will be complete.

MSU-B Peaks to Plains Park
ASLA Honor Award for Design

A four-acre park on the campus on Montana State University-Billings, Peaks to Plains Park in name, concept and details, refers to te regional, local and historic landscape in the spirit of Montana.

In 1999, Phase One of the park master plan began, with completion of the "Quarry," a small gathering space and a flowing fountain, carved and formed with sandstone, as well as overall shaping and landscaping of the park with infrastructure provisions for future phases. Masses of colorful perennials, groundcovers and shrubs were designed to provide interest in both the spring and fall when students and faculty are in session. This outdoor "classroom" includes such details as artistic remnants in the pavement and literary quotes submitted by Montana State University-Billings faculty, etched in sandstone.

The next phases will continue creating a park as a microcosm of Montana land features: tensile, sheltering Peaks over the amphitheater to the west and a Great Plain for events and gatherings to the east. A rock creek drainage will drop from a parking lot rim at the north, through native vegetation and wildflowers, to the sandstone quarry at the south.

Private Residence, Billings, MT
ASLA Honor Award

The third project to be awarded is a private residence, a 13-acre site perched atop the rimrocks of Billings, overlooking the Yellowstone Valley. Close collaboration with the owners and building designers resulted in a house designed with a philosophy of being an integration of architecture into the native landscape of the rims. Creative and subtle retention basins for water runoff provide both wildlife habitat and a transition between the preserved native landscape and the garden spaces that surround the home. Stone weaves throughout the design, from an entry "carpet" of sandstone slabs and creeping thyme, to the outdoor patio and fireplace, whose stone material and form is borrowed from a prominent area ranch home which had fallen into disrepair. Masses of perennials and ornamental grasses create washes of color, and were selected for their successful drought tolerance. Native prairie grass mix and trees such as Ponderosa Pine and Quaking Aspen combine to create an informal backdrop and to frame the view of the Beartooth mountains beyond.