Local firm featured on magazine cover

Custer’s own Tanya Olson and Matt Fridell were recently featured in the cover story for the October issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine. The article, called “The Art of Small Moves,” was written by Timothy A. Schuler and focuses on the landscape architects’ work in Lead through their firm Tallgrass Landscape Archticture, based in Custer. The article is accompanied by photographs by Louise Johns.
Landscpape Architecture Magazine is the offical publication for the Society of American Landscape Architects, and as its national conference is Minneapolis, Minn., this year, the magzine is spotlighting the work of Midwerstern firms.
At the last national conference, Olson spoke about designing in rural areas, and Lead was one of the communities she talked about. After that conference, they got an email from Schuler asking if they would be interested in being interviewed for the magazine.
“Absolutley,” was their response.
“I want to see more people at the national level talking about the impact that landscape architects can have in rural areas,” said Olson.
Previously, their work on the Custer Beacon was featured in a smaller article in the magazine, and they’ve been in touch with the writer, Schuler, for years.
“I’ve been talking to him for several years about designing in rural places. Landscape archictecture is often mostly focused on urban places, and we don’t get much press on what it means to be a design firm in a rural area or serve rural people and communities,” said Olson. “I’ve been sort of harrassing him about it for several years. I think we’re rural evanglelists.”
Their work in Lead has taken place primarily around the Open Cut—the most prominent reminder of the Homestake Mine, which closed in 2002, but not without completley transforming and shaping the lanscape of the town. The article traces how “small moves” that Tallgrass has made around the cut over the course of several years have helped to transform the perception of the cut, which many regarded as a kind of ugly scar on the town.
Fridell and Olson explained how they approach working with rural communities, saying the work isn’t always a single physical project, but that it’s important to understand what the specific goals of the community are and how they can help the  community chip away at those goals.
“They’re putting money in the bank every time they do that,” said Olson.
They explained how often, a more urban design firm might shoehorn a project into a rural community that they may not have the social or financial capital to support.
“A big city can absorb huge projects—they have funding for huge projects, they have a huge tax base, and small towns just don’t have that, so we have to be really respectful and thoughful about how we approach design in small towns,” said Olson.
“We’ve really built our company around the idea of working for rural places, around the idea that rural places need good design just like places that have larger budgets. It’s really about recognizing and celerating the autonomy of rural communities, and that they can be great places to live. Our work is really about facilitating that,” said Fridell.
With this article, Fridell and Olson are excited to be able to share their work and get others excited about working with rural communtities. The magazine has a distribution of about 60,000.
“I hope more people are inspired to work in rural areas, and I also hope that designers that maybe are from big communities are more thoughtful when they’re working in small communities. I really hope we can use this to catalyze more conversations,” said Olson.
“We had been anticipating the article, but we were not expecting the cover or 20 pages of article. To have the cover of that is pretty huge for us,” said Fridell.
“We were so surprised,” said Olson, “I dont think I’ve been more flabbergasted in my life.”
“We we’re just really excited to have both of them [Schuler and Johns] out, and thought it was such a cool experience,” said Olson.
Copies of the magazine can be obtained through asla.org/lamsingleissues.aspx