Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho, It’s Off to Work They Go

At Kudela & Weinheimer we really treasure the level of service we are able to give our clients. Our firm has enough staff power to handle large, complex projects yet we are small enough to provide a high level of personal service. We promise that we always put the “A” -Team on every project, and we do! With a lean, mean, well-oiled office machine -of currently 18 employees – we are expanding our office personnel – soon to be 23- to keep deadlines on time and make sure clients continue to receive extraordinary customer service! With a Texas size welcome, we have 4 new people coming to the Houston office, well actually 3, but if you count Nick Weinheimer (seasoned intern extraordinaire, and Mr. Weinheimer’s son), we’ve got 4.

We are very excited about all of our new employees but Michael Averitt is a special addition and will be joining our conceptual design studio. He will work under the direction of Thad Kudela, doing schematic design, we are looking forward to seeing his innovative ideas. Mr. Averitt comes to us from SWA, where he was based in Shanghai, PRC. With a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas and a Master Degree of Landscape Architecture also from The University of Texas at Austin, he has a well-rounded education and life experience to compliment that. His work experience has included “hands on” nursery experience, as well as working at famed Peter Walker and Partners (PWP Landscape Architecture) in Berkeley, California. Just for reference, PWP designed the National 9/11 Memorial and is currently working on redesigning the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Mting “Miki” Fan has a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. Although Ms. Fan is young, she is a bilingual, bright and talented student with a knock out portfolio that includes being a finalist for design of the Mercer Butterfly Garden. She researched, designed and presented her submission to the board of the Mercer Arboretum & Botanic Garden in Harris County. We are looking forward mentoring her and expanding her skills within our fast paced office.

Danielle Bilot is joining us from Oregon, and will work as an intern for six months. Ms. Bilot has a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from University of Wisconsin and is currently working on a Master of Landscape Architecture from University of Oregon. Ms. Bilot was acknowledged in GROW – Wisconsin’s Magazine for the Life Sciences for the positive effects of the Neu-Life Park built in Milwalukee. Having multiple awards under her belt, she is a talented landscape designer and we’re happy she is coming to spend 6 months with us in Houston, starting in the summer. Hopefully the winter will win her over and she’ll actually want to come back.

Nick Weinheimer has grown up around landscape architecture, from being a wee-tyke hanging out at the office with dad during the after-hours, to learning the ropes of CADD working as an intern during the summers. Mr. Weinheimer is following in his dad’s footsteps by going to school at Texas A&M University in College Station to obtain a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture. He’s currently a Junior, becoming a senior in the fall and has been working summers at Kudela & Weinheimer for 6 years.

The San Antonio office is adding one employee.
Kenzie Porter is a graduate of Texas A&M University in College Station with a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture. Ms. Porter has hands on field experience and landscape design in-office experience. She has also had the opportunity to study abroad in Bonn, Germany. The San Antonio office of Kudela & Weinheimer is excited to have her joining the team, and is looking forward to teaching her the way it’s really done, Moczygemba style! Watch out, Kenzie, he’s a slave driver.

Kudela & Weinheimer scours the US, and apparently China, looking for highly qualified talent with extraordinary portfolios. We are insistent about only hiring the best for our team. A big “welcome aboard” to our new guys and gals!

Wesley & Jacob assemble furniture for the new employees

Briana gets back to work after moving to her new station

Wesley’s studio prepares for new employees.

Landscape Architecture Has Healing Powers – Menninger Clinic Grand Opening in Houston, Texas

April 12, 2012 Menninger Clinic held a grand opening of it’s new Houston, Texas, John M. O’Quinn Foundation Campus, near South Post Oak Blvd and S. Main Street. With probably three hundred plus attendees, it turned out to be a perfect day for an outdoor event, where all could enjoy the landscaped grounds that Kudela & Weinheimer designed. The weather has recently been warm in Houston, but the sun was behind the clouds and the temperature outside was nice with a slight breeze through the courtyard.

Directly in the middle of the healing garden courtyard, set up on the labyrinth, the grand opening took place under a white tent. Ian Aitken, President and CEO of The Menninger Clinic began the ceremony with a welcome speech, followed by other words of thanks and appreciation from various members of Menninger Clinic’s Board of Directors and other influential medical professionals and community leaders. As a special addition, the Lt. Governor, David Dewhurst, spoke about mental health and how it’s touched so many families including his own.

The medical buildings were designed by Kirksey Architects with a Frank Lloyd Wright inspiration to invoke a strong sense of warmth and home. Special touches reminiscent of Wright included design motifs in masonry, stained glass, woodwork, lighting, carpets and retired fabric designed by Wright were used for patient room window treatments. There are approximately 185,000 sf that have a capacity for 120 patients. Each medical building was meticulously designed for safety with clear lines of vision, quick access doors on units, custom-made door pulls, continuous door hinges, break away shower curtains and draperies, multiple patient room lighting options without electrical cords and security cameras.

In addition to the carefully designed buildings the landscaping and therapeutic healing gardens are an extremely important consideration for the medical campus. Healing gardens have been used for over a thousand years to aid in healing of mental and physical ailments; although the practice had been diminished over time as medical technology advanced in the 20^th century, it is coming back as a complementary aspect to western medical technology. The purpose behind a meditation/healing garden is to provide a soothing, peaceful and relaxing place that evokes calmness, which research has proven to have therapeutic benefits. Roger Ulrich, a professor at The Center for Health Systems and Design at Texas A&M University, presented a paper entitled “Health Benefits of Gardens in Hospitals” that focuses on the importance of including landscaped healing gardens to reduce stress and provide a pleasant distraction to compliment the sterile hospital architectural presence.

650 Trees were planted on the medical site. 50 of those trees were mature. A tree spade is used to move and transplant large trees from one site to another.

The Menninger Faculty and Staff recognize the importance of including healing gardens at their facility, and carefully considered the landscape development from Kudela & Weinheimer for the site. The healing gardens at the new Menninger Clinic, John M. O’Quinn Campus, are lush landscaped grounds that are functional, maintainable and visually pleasing. With a 50 acre site and approximately $3 million for landscaping; Kudela & Weinheimer was able to conceptually design and create a cohesive and beautiful healing medical campus. The original site began as a flat, uninteresting, unwooded area that Kudela & Weinheimer transformed to have over 650 trees, 50 of which were mature “Century Trees” used in the courtyard. The smallest trees used on the site were 100 gallon.

While a healing garden must be simple, to keep the space easy to understand, it also needs to include a variety of texture, forms and color. Kudela & Weinheimer invested an ample amount of time conceptualizing the landscape for the 4-acre medical courtyard which hosts a labyrinth, berms, seating areas and meditation gardens. Custom artwork and sculptures provide a hard-surfaced interest to the healing gardens. An outdoor therapeutic saltwater swimming pool and outdoor dining arbor contribute to socialization and physical activity, which Is imperative for mental well-being. All of these landscaped pockets provide an easy to understand, soothing outdoor space with a healthy variety of sensory stimulation to aid in the recovery of The Menninger Clinic’s patients.

There are a few special and unique touches that are a part of the landscape design, including a 2-ton sculpture, “The Vital Balance,” that has been relocated from the original medical clinic in Topeka, Kansas, a sand volleyball court and a chef’s herb garden located outside of the open kitchen. Each unit also includes an open air landscaped terrace, for a more private setting. In addition to these noted special features, The Menninger Clinic Campus was also designed and built to LEED® certification standards.

Kudela & Weinheimer is proud to have provided landscape design that will assist with the healing and care of The Menninger Clinic’s program at the Houston, Texas campus. Visit our website for more medical related projects.

The Menninger Clinic is a world leader in medical psychiatric treatment, research and education.

Texas A&M University Agriculture Headquarters Building Wins Awards

Texas A&M University Agriculture Headquarters Building | ENR: Engineering News Record | McGraw-Hill Construction.

It’s old-ish news, but it’s still worth a mention. The Texas A&M University Agriculture Headquarters Building won a couple of awards. The ENR  2011 Best Projects, Award of Merit and The Associated Builders and Contractors of Greater Houston Institutional Merit Award, 2011 are 2 awards that the building has been given.

Kudela & Weinheimer has had the pleasure of being the Landscape Architect for this project, helping to achieve LEED Silver status, which is determined by the USGBC (United States Green Building Council). One aspect which contributes to the LEED points is that the roof of the Agriculture Building will capture rainwater which will be stored in an underground 40,000 gallon tank; that water will be used for irrigation. Kudela & Weinheimer also designed the site with vegetative bioswales, constructed wetlands, native and adaptive plants, crop demonstration areas, pedestrian circulation, outdoor classroom and courtyard spaces, specialty gardens, and grassland, motor court and an urban street-scape along Kimbrough Boulevard.

Learn more about Kudela & Weinheimer visit our website 

Outdoor Kitchens for Commercial Properties

Sarah Krouskop - Landscape Designer

Since many of our clients are multifamily developers and resort condominium developers, the projects which we work on are often located in warmer climates, where a person can spend a larger part of the year outdoors. Outdoor kitchens are an essential gathering center for residents to have an extended living space.  An outdoor kitchen is no longer just a built-in grill, it’s an extension of living space which can include an extra counter top for preparation, storage, bar top, sink, refrigerator, and stove top burners; many features which are important for outdoor kitchens at multifamily or commercial developments because of the proximity to one’s living quarters.

Kudela & Weinheimer designs kitchens with all the amenities the “grill master” or “event planner” could want.  Every kitchen is designed to extend the outdoor season and have as many accessible options as possible.  While each kitchen is uniquely devised, many of them have bar-like counters with long trough sinks or in-set coolers ideal to keep your drinks cold and an outdoor televisions for “tailgating.”  Others include lounge-like seating with a large slow-moving fan for a tropical island breeze feeling.  Outdoor kitchens can be as simple or deluxe as desired by the client. Fancy options such as pizza ovens, trash compactors, drawers, and television cabinets are all viable options for an outdoor kitchen.

See some examples of Kudela & Weinheimer commercial outdoor kitchens below. And visit our website

An urban mid-rise condominium with high-end finishes and details.

Located in South Padre Island, The Sapphire has a 300ft long pool and an outdoor kitchen beneath a thatch roof.

Luxury high-rise apartments in Austin, Texas featuring contemporary poolside outdoor kitchen and lounging area.

Sarah Krouskop – Landscape Designer

Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio: Military’s Medical Headquarters

Fort Sam Houston is known as the “Home of Army Medicine” and as of 2011 is the largest and most important military medical training facility in the world. Kudela & Weinheimer’s San Antonio office has had the opportunity provide landscape architecture for two projects at Fort Sam, IMCOM and METC.

IMCOM is the acronym for Installation Management Command. According to Wikipedia, this arm of the United States Army “supports the war fighting mission by providing standardized, effective & efficient services, facilities and infrastructure to Soldiers, Civilians and Families for an Army and Nation engaged in persistent conflict.” The group is made up of: The former Installation Management Agency (IMA); the former Community and Family Support Center, currently known as Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation; and the former Army Environmental Center. The purpose for the newly organized IMCOM was simply to “focus on installation management and enhance the well-being of Soldiers, Families and Civilians,” according to Wikipedia.

The METC is short for Medical Educational & Training Campus, it offers over 60 academic programs in various medical specialties to US enlisted military students. The METC is an integrated campus under a single university-style administration, it has affiliations with several academic bachelors and masters degree programs with universities such as Baylor University, University of Texas Health Science Centers at Houston and San Antonio, and University of Nebraska. The Army Medical Department and School trains more than 25,000 students annually. All military medical training has been consolidated at Fort Sam Houston as a result of the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure Commission). Fort Sam Houston is The Military’s Medical Headquarters, and the METC covers more than 2,000,000 square feet of the Fort Sam Houston campus.

Kudela & Weinheimer has a broad variety of projects our portfolio and we are honored to have had the opportunity to give our military personnel an enjoyable outdoor built environment. Through HJD Capital Electric, Inc and Allen Nutt Architect, K&W handled 5 phases of street and parking lot additions for the IMCOM campus. We designed planting and landscape according to the Army Corp of Engineers Guideline Standards and maintained a budget of $100,000 for the entire project with a $30,000 landscape budget.

The METC Integration Plan proposed troop walks, lighting, and landscaping to unify all the separate components of the METC campus and integrate it into a cohesive campus. We completed a planting design that helped serve that purpose. We selected the plant palette according to the constraints of the project. Most notably, plants had to provide interest all year, but also be drought tolerant and able to survive the San Antonio climate without continuous irrigation (environmentally friendly and sustainable). For the design, we placed trees and planting beds at major points of interest along the walks, using the palette to create interesting repetitions that integrated the campus. The scope included proposing planting along 3,800 Linear Feet of walkway, with a $50,000 landscaping budget.

The METC is estimated to bring $15 billion  per year to San Antonio and is reported to have already brought $621 million to the San Antonio economy.

Want to see other Kudela & Weinheimer projects? Click here

Kudela & Weinhiemer San Antonio office key people:

Go Texan Day: K&W Kicks Off Rodeo Season

In Spirit of Go Texan Day, Kudela & Weinheimer employees show their support for the Houstonian tradition. In 1954 Archer Romero began a tradition, encouraged everyone to wear Western clothes, to get excited about the upcoming Houston Fat Stock Show and Livestock Exposition.

It says on the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo website “In order to preserve our proud Texas tradition and build awareness of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™, we challenge schools, businesses, organizations, and clubs to participate in a one-day event that will build pride in our Texas and Western heritage throughout Houston and the surrounding areas.”

It may not appear like much western at first glance but......

At the K&W office, Ryan Petree wins the best dressed Western Wear contest for sure! Cowboy hat, duster jacket and cowboy boots!

Tonight is also the Bar-B-Que Cook off at Reliant, aka Rodeo Headquarters. Go get your Bar-B-Que on and maybe you’ll see some of our Kudela & Weinheimer Staff out there!

3D Modeling for Real Life Results

Amanda Jaloway

It’s often difficult to envision what a 2D landscape plan will actually look like in the built environment. 3D modeling is a handy tool in the world of design to help our clients envision the true sense of place and we’ve found a great program to aid us in this endeavor. SketchUp is a 3D modeling program that, unlike many of its competitors, is simple to use and easily self-taught. One of the best features is that a free version is available for download through their website [www.sketchup.google.com] making it widely available – always a plus when trying to coordinate with clients, contractors, etc.

2D Rendering: Onstructure Amenities Deck for Multifamily High-rise

We have been able to utilize this product in many facets of our work.  Frequently the only tool we have to present a design is a rendered plan; though very useful, sometimes plans can be difficult to read, or more so, difficult to interpret how it will look in real life. This is where SketchUp comes into play. We can build a 3D model of our design to show the clients exactly how a design will look in reality.

Once the base model has been created we can then work out design details, such as material selections, furniture design and placement, planting design and selections, in the model. For example, if a client is torn between two materials for a certain area, we can easily import these materials into the model for a side by side comparison, greatly simplifying the selection process.

We have also been able to use SketchUp to work out the mechanics of certain design elements. In one such instance, we were designing a fountain and having a difficult time detailing exactly how all the elements would work together. We decided to model it in SketchUp and were then able to work out the fine details in a 3D environment, much more cohesive with real life.

All-in-all, we have found SketchUp to be a highly beneficial tool in the visualization and evolution of our designs in the built environment.

3D Rendering: Onstructure Amenities Deck for Multifamily High-rise

Written by Amanda Jaloway

Amanda designs and prepares most of our 3D renderings on Kudela & Weinheimers’ projects. Having 3D renderings is a valuable tool for helping our clients experience their space before it’s built.

Big Box Retailers Ahead of the Curve

Ryan Petree

Kudela & Weinheimer is a unique firm that gives its architect’s the ability to work on a wide range of projects. These can range from high-profile sky scrapers to big box retail. Surprisingly enough, it happens to be the retail market that is leading the charge for better building practices at the moment.

More and more retail projects are asking for advanced technology in regards to irrigation systems to better allow them to manage their typically large systems. This in turn leads to lower water bills. Large parking lots require much larger looped irrigation systems to reach the entire project site parameter planting and parking lot islands. Large systems can often mean more opportunity for a break in the system that can go unnoticed. Breaks can result in thousands of dollars in excess on water bills. High tech controllers (evapotranspiration controllers with weather stations) allow for a computerized system reports and monitoring that instantly recognized unusually high water usage for the irrigation zone with the break. The controllers can even shut off a particular zone, while the rest of the system runs and maintains a healthy landscape. These high-tech controllers in tandem with drip irrigation for planting areas often mean more efficient and more economical landscapes.

Controller used to detect breaks in large irrigation systems

Irrigation isn’t the only way retail projects are ahead of the curve. Landscape guidelines, from the client, have become more detailed and refined. This is not only in plant selection, but installation practices as well. The requirement of native and/or adaptive plants ensures the landscape is more tolerable in times of drought. This can be as simple as native or adaptive grasses and groundcovers in high heat areas such as parking lot islands. It also means that the material is grown closer to the project and reduces costs on shipping and ultimately the installation cost. Native and adaptive plants, in addition to responsible design help ensure that the project site fits in with the local style of the surrounding area.

Native & Adaptive Plants Example

Lastly, thorough construction administration (site inspections, monitoring and field reports) requirements help to lower overall maintenance costs. More site visits for inspections ensure less construction mistakes and a better finished project. This can mean higher consultant fees up front, but the inability for contractors to cut corners with more supervision on the project can pay dividends in the end. More material submittals also guarantees that plant material installed is consistent with the size and type specified in addition to being a better quality. Some clients are even requiring the more costly material such as trees to be tagged at the nursery by the Landscape Architect to ensure the best available plant material is installed on the site.

Retail projects often have less landscaping than other projects we work on, but that doesn’t mean they are inferior by any means.  If more projects took on the better building practices this part of the industry is embracing, development in general might be better off.

Written by Ryan Petree

Ryan spends a lot of time doing hands-on field work. Tasks including punching projects, tagging trees and ensuring installation quality control on site.

There’s No Place Like Home

Master Planned Community Landscape Designer

It’s the American dream: a beautiful home, 2.5 kids, a dog (or a cat if that’s your thing), and a lawn to mow on the weekends.  We all want a place to come back to at the end of a long day that feels like home, where you get to feel safe, and gives you a sense of community.

I find my passion working on excellent examples of this with Friendswood Development Company, who introduced the concept of the master planned community to Houston in the 1960’s.  For the past 5 years, I’ve been able to lend a hand in shaping some amazing communities like ‘West Ranch’ in Friendswood, ‘Oakhurst’ & ‘ Auburn Trails’ in Kingwood, ‘Lakemont’ in Richmond, and ‘The Lakes of Savannah’ in Pearland.  The glue that holds these communities together and keeps attracting future home buyers is a united goal in creating livable, walkable, interactive communities that cater to people in the various stages of life.  Creating the splash park that transports a kid into wonderland, the greenbelt hike & bike trails that encourages a healthy lifestyle, the sidewalks and rhythmic shade trees that get you out of your house and into socializing with your neighbors is the goal, creating your community & your home.

I continue to look forward to new phases being developed within evolving communities like ‘West Ranch’, and I especially enjoy looking back at an established one like ‘Oakhurst’.  There is nothing more rewarding than getting to finally step back and observe the environment you helped create:  ’The American Dream.’

Master Planned Community Landscape Designer

Lakes of Savannah Bioswale

Medians & Streetscaping at Lakes of Savannah utilize Low Impact Development

Splash Pad / Spray Park Equipment and Materials Board

Lakes of Savannah Community Splash Pad

Spray Park and Play Ground at Auburn Trails

Rendering of a Pedestrian Bridge in West Ranch Community

Written by Briana Hirth

 “It’s wonderful to work with a tight-knit group of amazing professionals dedicated to achieving a united goal of creating unique and creative spaces for the surrounding community”

After receiving a Bachelor in Landscape Architecture with Honors from Texas Tech University in 2007, Briana moved to Houston and joined the Kudela & Weinheimer team.  Working with her team, she’s been able to put her training into practice creating livable, walkable spaces, for a variety of developments including, mixed use, office, master planned community, multi-family and commercial.
Her hobbies include photography and activities that encourage being outdoors like jogging, hiking, and walking her two wonderful dogs.

Abundant Blessings 2011

It is always at this time of year that we reflect back on the past year. Playing Santa Clause for the past three weeks was definitely an improvement over the past two years. Overall I have noticed the business mood has lightened up a little bit and people are looking forward to new projects in the development world. Over here at Kudela & Weinheimer, we have been fortunate enough to be a beneficiary of the first development recovery, multifamily housing. As Mr. Weinheimer would say “We are busier than a one armed grave digger,” which is a great situation to be in considering the past few years.

Every year, K&W shows our gratitude to our top 20% of clients with a very special holiday gift. Our gift is a fine art photograph of a natural Texas landscape set in a different region of the state and taken by a different photographer every year. The image is printed on archival museum paper, signed by the artist and framed. The process is quite time consuming because once the image is purchased it is then sent off to Aker Imaging to be professionally printed and the final prints are sent back to the photographer for a signature and title.  When the printed images get back to our office, the Kudela & Weinheimer staff (aka elves) help to take the frames apart, clean the glass and insert pictures, a process which takes several days to complete. And all thanks to Mrs. Weinheimer the packages are beautifully wrapped with ribbon and embellishments which she is able to knock out like a crafting superhero.

From the Panhandle Plains to the Piney Woods…from Big Bend to the Gulf Coast…Texas offers a myriad of memorable vistas, which can keep the series going for a long time to come. Two thousand eleven marks the sixth year we have presented this type of gift to our clients (some of them have all six hanging right in their offices). In our reflection on the past year, Kudela & Weinheimer’s chose a photograph titled “Abundant Blessings,” taken by Joe Lowery, in honor of our current circumstance. The photograph is not only a beautiful print, but it also fits the emotional bill of our current circumstance, we have been abundantly blessed with the best clients a company could ask for! If you too, would like to be on our gift list, all you need to do is make your way to the top twenty percent of our clients.

All kidding aside, although we cannot afford, via time or money, to present every client with one of these gifts, we thank all 100% of our clients for bringing us Abundant Blessings! Our relationship with you is one thing we treasure. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you.

A photograph by Joe Lowery

Joe Lowery Bio Card