What is Placemaking?

'Placemaking’ is both an overarching idea and a hands-on tool for improving a neighborhood, city or region. It has the potential to be one of the most transformative ideas of this century.
Read more about how changing focus changes everything.

Celebrating Landscape Architecture Month

History of Anniversary Celebrations

From the dawn of humanity, when Homo sapiens first began walking upright, they have always been a group of dedicated party animals. Life was hard in those days, what with fighting off cave bears and saber-toothed tigers. The Ice Age made modern winters look silly. Food was hard to come by. There was no such thing as walking down to the market. It was a rough existence. Any excuse for a celebration was welcome.
If the fish were biting and there was a good catch...a fish food party! If hunters managed to bring home a woolly mammoth so the tribe could eat for a while? Yes...a mammoth party! The problem with those types of parties was that you could go for a very long time between good feasts. There had to be an excuse for celebrations, even during the lean times. (borrowed from Chiff.com)
Well, we have a good excuse for celebrating - the 25th Anniversary of Lehman & Lehman, Inc.
Since December 7, 1988, Lehman & Lehman has had the privilege of "Transforming Horizons" throughout Indiana and the Midwest. Many of our clients have been with us from the beginning. Some are just discovering what we, as Landscape Architects, Urban Planners and Placemakers, can do for you.
Whatever the scope of our relationship we know that we would not be celebrating 25 years without you and we take this time to thank you for the trust you have placed in us and the relationships we enjoy.
To many more celebrations...

Happy Thanksgiving

"Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." - William Arthur Ward

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to express gratitude...to our families and our friends, our clients and our colleagues. We are thankful for our conversations and collaborations, our work and our play. God has truly blessed us and for that we give thanks.

Our holiday tradition of sharing recipes continues! Our most requested pie recipes can be found by clicking Our Recipe Collection above. You can then follow the link to see past recipe collections.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Walking Revolution

Take 30 minutes to watch Every Body Walk's new documentary on the benefits of walking - then take a 30 minute walk - it could change your life!

Ten Great Reasons to be a Landscape Architect

"Landscape Architecture is what you encounter once you walk out your front door. It is the rural environment, the urban environment and the profession acting as the interface between earth's natural ecosystem and its people."
Read more about Landscape Architecture here.

GreenTown Michiana

GreenTown Michiana is being held Thursday & Friday, October 10-11, 2013 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Downtown South Bend.

GreenTown: The Future of Community is designed to help create sustainable communities. Since 2007, mayors and other elected officials, city managers, public works directors, park district directors, planners, developers, builders, architects, landscape architects, engineers, school leaders, teachers, healthcare professionals, environmental advocates – and many others interested in sustainable development – have gathered to hear inspiring speakers, learn from been–there case studies and discuss actionable steps to make communities – and people and planet – healthier. At GreenTown, people learn. Network. Act.

Chuck Lehman will be one of the presenters of "Reinventing Neighborhoods Through Mixed Use and Transit Oriented Development" (Friday 10:25–11:25), and will be moderating a panel discussion on "Reinventing Downtown South Bend: How a Complete Streets Vision Will Revitalize Downtown" (Friday 11:30–12:30).

Chuck is also a Co-Chair of GreenTown Michiana, with Mike Keen, Director of IUSB Center for a Sustainable Future, and is excited by the attendance response to the conference, not only the Michiana area, but from many surrounding cities and states.

Besides the information exchange from the various presentations, Chuck feels the greater benefit will be realized in the networking of the participants beyond the GreenTown Michiana Conference. As Co-Chair, he felt this important enough to establish a 6–month followup meeting to regroup with conference participants to report progress, build on collaborations, etc., in an effort to enhance healthy and sustainable communities. The tentative date for this 6–month progress meeting is April 4, 2014. More information will be coming soon.

If you attend the GreenTown Michiana Conference we would like to hear your thoughts and feedback. If you are unable to attend please visit http://www.greentownconference.com/ in the coming weeks to view (and download) the presentations shared.

GreenTown is co–produced by a5, a Chicago–based marketing and communications firm, and Seven Generations Ahead, a non–profit organization whose mission is to build healthy, sustainable communities. Over the past five years, they have created experiences across the Midwest in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.

For more information contact Chuck at chuck@lehmanandlehman.com