Tennessee Selects Studio A, Inc., For Long-Range Rec Plan

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar 25, 2009 -
(CHARLESTON, SC) -- Heritage Strategies Group, a subsidiary of Studio A., Inc. an architectural firm in Charleston, has inked a contract from the State of Tennessee to prepare that state's 2010-2020 Tennessee State Recreation Plan.

The contract includes the state’s 2020 Land and Water Vision Plan as well as the five-year Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP), a federally mandated program that allows states to be eligible to receive Land and Water Conservation Fund grants through the National Park Service for the acquisition, development, and renovation of outdoor recreation facilities.

Heritage Strategy Group became the official planning arm of Studio A, Inc., earlier this month. Headed by Edwin Gardner, Heritage develops recreational areas and scenic byways in a manner that allows local businesses and other stakeholders to enjoy growth and prosperity while the natural, historical and cultural heritage of the affected areas are preserved and enhanced.

“Conservation of natural, cultural, and historic resources is an imperative in our practice,” said Studio A principal Whitney Powers, AIA, a LEED-certified practitioner widely recognized for her work in green, or sustainable, architecture and historic preservation. “We are honored to receive this contract and to continue our work with Tennessee.

Edwin Gardner has worked with the state of Tennessee on similar projects over recent years. In a recent post to his blog – www.heritagestrategy@wordpress.com -- he includes a map from the recently released USDA 2007 Farm Census showing clusters of red dots that highlight places where “deep cultural traditions of connectedness to the land may be most threatened.” These areas “are losing wildlife habitat, scenic rural landscapes, and potential recreation lands.” Dense clusters of dots fill Tennessee, which “tells you at a glance why I do so much heritage planning work in Tennessee.”

Gardner created the blog as an addendum to Studio A’s website (www.studioa-architecture) to more fully describe the work of a heritage planner – a relatively new focus area in the industry – and because “many interdisciplinary crossovers in these planning niches could make a site like this very useful to planners as well as their clients,” he said.

Consultants on the Tennessee State Recreation Plan include Barge Waggoner of Sumner and Cannon in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the Human Dimensions Research Lab at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture.

For more information on Studio A, Inc., visit www.studioa-architecture.com. Studio A is also available on Facebook.

For more information on the Heritage Strategy Group, go to www.heritagestrategy@wordpress.com.