Public gardens provide us with wonderful spaces where we can relax and enjoy the outdoors. They can also offer valuable educational opportunities about the native plants, as well as the history of an area.
This National Public Gardens Week, we are highlighting MIG | PGA's work on the Grace Husdon Museum in Ukiah, CA, that was recently featured in a @savingplaces article “9 Tips On Planting Your Garden from Experts at Historic Sites.”
The Wild Gardens at the Museum combines the beauty of native plants along with historical exhibits positioned throughout the planting design that educates visitors about land management practices of the Pomo people of the Ukiah Valley, and showcases modern-day techniques in resource preservation, water conservation, and green building. You can read about the feature at the link in our bio!
📸 : Grace Hudson Museum
MIG's Cultural Places recently completed work on a Cultural Landscape Report (CLR) for Channel Island National Park’s Santa Rosa Island. Working with Hennebery Eddy and the National Park Service, the project team had the unique task of carefully integrating existing and expanding recreational and research uses into the island’s sensitive habitat, while preserving character-defining features associated with the island's centuries-long ranching history.
The CLR prioritizes the stabilization of ranching features and the regeneration of natural resources. Recommendations include focusing on the ranch’s former headquarters as an arrival point for visitors, identifying opportunities for accessible circulation, wayfinding, and lodging that are compatible with the ranching character of the island.
Happening now! MIG is presenting at this year’s 2026 IDA Place Matters conference in Madison, WI.
Today, MIG Chief Practice Officer Jay Renkens will be speaking at the Unbundling the Downtown Ecosystem, where he will be joining other U.S. city leaders to demonstrate how "Big Moves"—from "Cool & Connected" corridors to treating storefronts as civic infrastructure–use public investment to de-risk development and orchestrate collective ROI.
Then on Friday, Jay will be speaking at the Collaborative Planning for Downtown Madison session to expand on the coordinated public and private efforts that are going into shaping the tremendous growth in the City of Madison’s Greater Downtown.
MIG is proud to be a long-time sponsor of the event. If you’re at the conference, come by and say hi!
@cityofmadisonwi@downtownhouston@themagmile@downtownmadisoninc
Join our Seattle office for a Happy Hour and Presentation on May 21!
MIG's Sou Garner, Deputy Director of Community Planning and Senior Project Manager, will be presenting creative engagement methods used for the Kent Comprehensive Plan with a specific focus on housing.
Sign up by May 18! For event information and registration, please visit: /events/#!event/2026/5/21/land-use-planning-for-equitable-housing-city-of-kent-case-study
Situated at the corner of 54th Street and Shattuck Ave in Oakland, CA, sits the 54th Street Pollinator Garden. The formerly abandonded lot was transformed into a permanent pollinator garden and community gathering space. MIG | PGADesign provided pro-bono design services for the project.
With the 24 freeway’s completion in the 1960s came a divided neighborhood with many vacant parcels. As a result, very little has been done to establish green spaces or communal public areas due to the historical disinvestment in the area. By revitalizing this land into a welcoming pollinator garden, the community aims to foster neighborhood connection and pride, showing what’s possible when people come together to care for public space.
Read more about the space and check out a timelapse video of the work at the link in our bio!
Today! Cathy Garrett, MIG | PGA Principal, will be co-presenting the 44th Annual California Preservation Awards Ceremony. The statewide hallmark hosted by the @capreservation will showcase 23 winning projects for 2026, as well as the President’s Award and Trustees’ Award for Excellence winners.
MIG | PGA is a proud sponsor of the event. Cathy and Alison Lee, Senior Planner at MIG, will be at the event. Come say hi!
MIG’s Cultural Places Studio started as an acorn over 18 years ago and has grown into a mighty oak, bolstered by MIG’s merger with PGAdesign in 2025. Our team of nationally recognized experts can help you during any phase—research, analysis, outreach, planning, design and construction for historic and cultural places throughout the country.
We believe that preservation requires managing rather than halting change, and we seek collaborations to strengthen the character and spirit of these dynamic resources—natural and built environments infused with cultural meaning.
To see more of our studio’s work visit the link in our bio.
Play isn't about equipment, its about the experience. And when we include everyone in the design process, we can create play for all ages and abilities.
Hidden Creek Park West in Hillsboro, Oregon, transports visitors to a magical woodland world where everyone can participate in play, community gathering, and intergenerational experiences. The 11-acre MIG-designed park features forest forts, sand and water play area, hammock grove, forest paths, open meadow, fitness course, shade structures, picnic pavilion, and 75-car parking area. About 200 new trees and tens of thousands of plants were selected for their climate resiliency, low water use, and seasonal beauty.
The showstopper, of course, is Oro, the gentle giant whose body creates space for social, physical, and adventurous play, as well as quiet places for hiding or peaceful solitude. Come play with us! Find out more at the link in our bio.
#WLAM2026
For a county that is known for crowded freeways and sprawling neighborhoods, it might surprise some that Los Angeles County is also home to 1 million acres of regional recreation and conservation areas. However expanding and lush these areas are, they are not accessible to majority of the County’s residents.
To better evaluate and elevate park equity in the County, MIG worked with the County of Los Angeles and various CBOs to create the 2022 Park Needs Assessment Plus (PNA+) report. The groundbreaking report goes above and beyond to analyze racial inequities that still exist when it comes to park and environmental justice by evaluating population vulnerability, environmental benefits and burdens, and priority areas for environmental conservation, regional recreation and rural recreation.
Learn more about this award-winning project at: /work/la-county-parks-needs-assessment-plus
#WLAM2026
Bell Street Park is nationally known as establishing a new typology for streets as parks and open space, and provides cities with a model case to reimagine the right-of way as both a thriving open space and an important transit connection. MIG worked with the City of Seattle for their first shared street project.
Bell Street Park demonstrates how a bold vision for transformation can be realized through inclusive design and strong city/community collaboration. It’s now an outdoor living room for residents, while still serving cars, buses, bicycles and emergency vehicles.
This is the first section of a planned park corridor that will eventually run all the way from South Lake Union to Elliott Bay. Link in bio to learn more!
#WLAM2026
The Mendez Tribute Monument Park and Freedom Trail tells the story of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez's 1947 educational civil rights battle that changed California forever. Their landmark desegregation case set the legal precedent for the famous Brown v. Board of Education case, paved the way to meaningful integration and public school reform, and set the stage for the American civil rights movement.
The 0.2-acre site is small but bursts out of its boundaries. It features sculptures and art pieces created by local artist Ignacio Gomez, a park plaza with seating, and an interactive station with interpretive panels to share the Mendez story with visitors. The design incorporates recycled materials for the site furniture, drought-tolerant plantings, accent and security lighting, and water-saving irrigation technology, as well as a dry creek bed and depressed planting areas that capture stormwater on site.
Take a walk in this mixed-reality park at the link in our bio.
#WLAM2026
The education of Native Americans in the US has had a complex and difficult history. Native American children were often forcibly removed from their families and communities and relocated to boarding schools, where they were forbidden to speak their native languages or to practice their cultural traditions.
The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe has wanted to educate their children within their own community, within their own schools, for decades. MIG worked with the Tribe to help make that vision a reality. The “Growing Ute Futures” Education Master Plan will guide the development of the campus during the coming decades and serve as a blueprint for growth of on-Reservation education and improvements that serve the whole community.
The Master Plan includes incremental expansion and looks beyond K-5 to a broader campus, including a middle school, high school, technical programs for young adults, a modern public library, potential space for Ute history archives, spaces for indigenous knowledge sharing, after-school and literacy programs, and lifelong education opportunities. The goal is to support Tribal youth and families in advancing themselves on and off the reservation, and support their social and emotional well-being.
Find out more at the link in our bio.
#WLAM2026
