2022 Title Sponsor: The Kleingers Group
The Kleingers Group is a design firm offering engineering services (civil, municipal, and transportation), landscape architecture, and surveying. We also have two divisions specializing in athletic field design and 3D laser scanning/reality capture. Through our creative and integrative approach to design, we improve communities across Central and Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky.
We are incredibly excited about our increasing presence in downtown Cincinnati. We've enjoyed longtime partnerships with local architecture firms in making downtown Cincinnati a great place to work, live, and play. Our cross-disciplinary teams have contributed to notable downtown landmarks and destinations, including the Smale Riverfront Park Outdoor Music Venue, the Black Music Walk of Fame, the Andrew J. Brady Icon Music Center, FC Cincinnati TQL Stadium, Union Terminal, and the former Paul Brown Stadium. Much of our work can be viewed on our website.
Lynne Nischwitz, PLA, ASLA, CLARB
Our landscape architecture studio, led by Lynne Nischwitz, PLA, ASLA, CLARB, frequently collaborates with architects to create landscapes that accentuate and provide rhythm in design between interior and exterior plaza and garden spaces. Lynne and her talented team of ten landscape architects and designers collaborate with architects at the project's inception to develop the vision so that the outdoor hardscape and landscape spaces provide a seamless transition with the building architecture.
It is inspiring to deliver landscapes that evoke a sense of place with the beauty that is ever evolving, to create inspiration for those who experience and interact with the hardscape plazas and aesthetic softscape.
With 28 years of high-design experience, Lynne's approach to landscape architecture design is visionary, collaborative, and distinctive. Her favorite part of the design process is conceptual design. She first learned of the profession of landscape architecture from her father, who also was a landscape architect. She is inspired by the French landscape design style and Frederick Law Olmsted's vision of providing an inclusive landscape for all of society to access and experience.
The team's most recent landscape design is the Black Music Walk of Fame at Smale Riverfront Park. The Black Music Walk of Fame features an interactive park with a star-studded path. The park is partly located 'on structure' and features a 25' grade change, and ramps are a prime feature in the garden plaza. The ramps feature a dynamic black granite with inlaid bronze stars. Plaza area walls are designed in sandstone, handrails are stainless steel, and water features utilize black granite to match the Walk of Fame. The garden areas showcase a naturalistic, organic landscape with vibrant hues that provide interest throughout the year. Attention to detail is critical in the hardscape and softscape to ensure aesthetics enhance the park's visible location at a busy intersection.
The landscape design of the Outdoor Music Venue at Smale Riverfront Park creates an accessible, beautiful passive park with a concert lawn to watch live shows with grand views to the river. Sustainable plantings include shade trees, ornamental grasses, and perennials to provide interest in design across all seasons. The plaza hardscape elements seamlessly transition to the Andrew J. Brady Icon Music Center Plaza and the entirety of Smale Riverfront Park.
The Kleingers Group landscape architecture team enjoys creating outdoor plazas and landscapes. The design principles of high design, sustainability, recreation, and education connect people and are frequent themes in the team's city-core design portfolio, streetscapes, parks, and plaza spaces. Lynne and her team excel at bringing visions to life and are known for bringing outstanding communication skills, visionary concepts, and innovative problem solving to their client-focused, collaborative process.
AIA Cincinnati is grateful for The Kleingers Group’s support of our architecture community. Learn more at kleingers.com.