Flatland began with a wheelbarrow, a shovel, a pair of Felco pruners, and a 1980 Jeep Wagoneer as a side gig to repay a student loan.

Soon, the side gigs turned into designing and managing a five-year project in the 1990s to renovate and restore the Oakhurst Gardens and the Oakhurst house, along with many other features on the grounds of Minnetrista Museum and Gardens—the former Ball family compound on the bluff of the White River in Muncie, Indiana.

The name Flatland refers to the landform on which our projects lie. We do not work in oceans, nor do we work in the mountains.

Our work is in the heartland. Our work is within the Mississippi River Basin and the Great Lakes.

We learned about nature by exploring hardwood forests and open prairies. We learned through adventure and challenges. We learned from ditches, mud puddles, streams, and ponds. We learned from Midwestern architecture, be it Prairie style, Sears kit houses, Neoclassical buildings, or the high-rises of Chicago. We experienced the successes, demise, and reinvention of industrialization.

We are rooted in Midwestern urbanism, surrounded by farmland in all directions. We are viscerally connected to the Jeffersonian grid. We know the sound of growing corn. We know a sky that drops 38 inches of rain a year. We know the smell of wet worms after a heavy rain. We know winter is three weeks out when we hear the high-flying sounds of sandhill cranes in formation, migrating south. We know spring is six weeks away when the winter aconite shows its yellow manes.

We care deeply about the communities we serve. We worry about the loss of soil. We are passionate about water in our rivers and streams.

We succeed when our projects create communities where people thrive.

We strive to be long-term place makers.

We strive to transform space into place.

We strive to create spatial wonder.