A 24-Year History

Coen+Partners’ evolution throughout its 24-year, award-winning history is rooted in an understanding of beauty, landscape, and environmental advocacy. The firm’s work includes a variety of complex, multi-stakeholder projects where they play an integral role at the onset through project completion.

A Collaborative Approach

National and international clients and partners seek out Coen+Partners, citing a design aesthetic and philosophy that feels honest, intentional, and collaborative. “We’ve flourished because we’re true to our visionary and collaborative approach. We blend our design and process seamlessly with partner disciplines,” says Shane Coen, FASLA, firm founder and CEO.

“We’re honored to be in the company of this year’s Cooper Hewitt award recipients and award alumni. The mix of design disciplines and their expertise open up ideas for new collaborations that we’re ready to explore,” Coen commented. As a firm that’s been growing and pushing their own boundaries in thoughtful, contemplative ways, this award propels Coen+Partners’ work forward in a more public way.

Design Matters

Coen+Partners has been recognized with over thirty design awards for landscape architecture, planning, and urban design. The Cooper Hewitt recognition is significant because it is based on a designer or firm’s effective demonstration to the public that design matters. In jury deliberations, they consider the impact of a candidate’s design innovation and excellence, and how their design enhances the quality of daily life.

“A distinguishing factor in our work,” notes Coen, “is our desire to redefine natural frameworks rather than recreate nature. We believe this creates an optimal experience for people in the spaces we design, whether civic or residential.”

Firm Philosophy

The firm values design dialogue. By operating in more of a roundtable rather than linear format, all expressions of ideas are voiced and considered. Coen+Partners’ team of 14 designers, including principals Bryan Kramer and Robin Ganser, value collaboration, transparency in decision-making, and shared knowledge.

Shane Coen dedicates several weeks annually jurying design competitions, and speaking to peers and civic groups. As an advocate for visionary ideas, he is passionate about defining the role of landscape architects within cross-discipline partnerships that shape our urban, suburban, and rural environments. He has also served on the GSA National Registry of Peer Professionals and taught studio courses at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD).

About Cooper Hewitt

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is the only museum in the nation devoted exclusively to historic and contemporary design. The museum presents compelling perspectives on the impact of design on daily life through active educational and curatorial programming.

The National Design Awards were conceived by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum to honor lasting achievement in American design. First launched at the White House in 2000 as an official project of the White House Millennium Council, the annual awards program celebrates design as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of the impact of design through education initiatives.

The National Design Awards is one of the few programs of its kind structured to continue to benefit the nation long after the National Design Awards Gala, held this year on October 15, 2015. A suite of educational programs is offered in conjunction with the Awards during National Design Week, an initiative launched in 2006 that aims to draw national attention to the ways in which design enriches everyday life. During National Design Week (October 10-18, 2015), the museum hosts a series of public programs based on the vision and work of the honorees, and helps promote design events held across the country.

www.cooperhewitt.org + #NDAwards2015 + @cooperhewitt

About Coen+Partners

Coen+Partners is an award-winning landscape architecture practice based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Through a process of collaboration, experimentation and questioning, the firm’s work embraces the complexities of each site with quiet clarity and ecological integrity. The firm collaborates extensively with top design talent and civic leaders. Coen+Partners’ comprehensive services include master planning, site design, programming, and project administration for urban, green roof, rural and multi-scaled residential, institutional and commercial projects.

Coen+Partners received a Progressive Architecture (P/A) citation in 2003 for the redesign of Mayo Plan #1, a new residential community in Rochester, Minnesota. This award represented only the second time a landscape architecture firm had received this honor in the prestigious competition’s fifty-year history. In 2009 – 2010, Coen+Partners was recognized with two national ASLA (The American Society of Landscape Architecture) awards, three ASLA MN awards, and the Emerging Voices Award from the Architectural League of New York.