Well, we did it! The perennial question before we left was “Are you serious? You're taking the entire firm to England?” Wonderfully, now, it’s more along the lines of, “Okay, we can get to the project presentation in a moment, but please tell us how amazing the trip to England was.”

Everyone will be pleased to hear nobody got on the wrong train or lost their passport, and all staff are accounted for safely back in the States.

While there was certainly a good amount of anxiety and nerves about taking the firm and their spouses/partners away for an entire week, I cannot think of a more enriching experience we could have planned to celebrate all of our achievements over the last twelve years.

After these past 2.5 years of Covid-induced “new normal,” we all came to accept remote working, Zoom, and the virtues of digital design charrettes in Miro, so this trip was incredibly liberating. Being able to gather together in person — and for a handful of remote teammates, for the first time — to experience the adventures of Cambridge and London was the most fantastic cultural moment we could have shared. Not to mention the sunshine and cool breezes the entire trip.

As I stated when we first announced this crazy adventure, for me, landscape architecture is the culmination of celebrating the public realm, all through a lens that is focused by the places, cultures, landscapes and experiences around us.

England exceeded our expectations about broadening perspectives and experiences, making memories, and building upon our company culture. It was a one-of-a-kind celebration of design and culture and will forever hold many, many amazing memories for myself and the entire team.

And so, on behalf of the dwg. family, I do hope we can cause a little distraction at the next meeting as we share stories and the occasional photo. I also sincerely hope that we have perhaps raised the bar —  cracked this “new normal” if you will — and started something that catches. Because if there is one motto that we certainly love to live by it is, “Everything is subject to change!”

I hope you check out our travel itinerary and use it as a blueprint to make your own trip down our memory lane. I, for one, will never forget those first few days in Cambridge – the ancient buildings, pub crawls, great food and extraordinary company. We truly have the best team in the world!

Now, on to planting a bunch of trees for our carbon offset program and planning our 20 year celebration!

Onwards and upwards,

Daniel Woodroffe

President + Founder