Landscape architecture firm Lappas + Havener is now Surface 678

Sept. 23, 2013 - PRLog -- The award-winning landscape architecture firm Lappas + Havener has adopted a new name: Surface 678.

The new name was chosen to better reflect the firm’s established expertise in creating iconic landscapes throughout the southeastern United States – specifically horticulture temperature zones six, seven and eight.

The timing of the new name coincides with three milestones for the firm: Surface 678 is celebrating its 20th anniversary; one of the firm’s founders, Bob Lappas, has retired; and Eric Davis has been named senior partner. The firm is leveraging these milestones as an opportunity to cast a strong vision for the future and embrace a name that communicates and represents the firm’s critically acclaimed work, said Walt Havener, founder and president.

“As we considered new names for our firm, we wanted one that celebrated our accomplishments while fitting us for our journey moving forward,” Havener said. “And we wanted our firm’s name to honor the integrity of the media with which we work – flora, earth, water and air. Surface 678 expresses all of those concepts for us quite nicely.”

The City of Raleigh, N.C., recently hired the firm to enhance the environments around the city’s Exchange and Market plazas in order to boost pedestrian traffic, and encourage local restaurants and retail shops to extend their enterprises into the outdoors.

Surface 678 is led by principals Walt Havener and Eric Davis. For Havener, who has nearly 30 years of professional experience, landscape design has been a life-long passion he’s pursued to help enrich the lives of all citizens. He is involved in some way with all projects at Surface 678. Davis has more than 15 years of experience. A common theme found in his work is creating healthier and more enjoyable cities.

About Surface 678

Surface 678 is a design-centered landscape architecture firm that creates and delivers critically acclaimed environments for renowned architects, innovative cultural institutions and municipalities, and prominent universities, medical centers and corporations.

The firm provides architectural site design, urban design, community and recreational planning, and comprehensive master planning. Unlike firms that offer landscape design as an ancillary service, Surface 678 specializes in creating thoughtful connections between land, buildings and people, resulting in unique spaces that are iconic, sustainable and beautiful.

Last year, Surface 678 was honored as Firm of the Year by the North Carolina chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Surface 678’s creative work can be found through the Southeast, including the North Carolina Museum of Art’s Sculpture Gardens and Art Park. To see this and other examples of the firm’s place-making talents, visit us online.