Are you a B.C. First Nations storyteller, artist, or arts organization sharing about the perseverance of stories, knowledge, and arts practices in your community?
First Peoples’ Cultural Council (FPCC) is offering an Arts Vitality Grant, which is a one-time opportunity to receive up to $10,000 in funding for creative projects that contribute to research on the status and strength of B.C.
The design of our neighbourhoods, housing, transportation systems, parks, natural environments, and food systems affects the health of our communities. For over a decade, LEES+Associates has worked with the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA) on a number of projects around Healthy Built Environments.
As part of a consultant team led by Hatfield Consultants, LEES+Associates supported the Shoreline Restoration Design for Whey-ah-Wichen/Cates Park on behalf of the District of North Vancouver. Our role focused on the human use and interface aspects of the site and included a desktop review, site assessment and report, climate change analysis,
The City of Regina commissioned LEES+Associates to develop a Parks Master Plan for the city. This plan focuses on park policies and provides a clear path to sustain, improve, and develop Regina’s parks in the future. Through community engagement activities, we helped articulate Regina’s goal to create sustainable and inclusive year-round parks, offer enriching experiences, and connect communities through nature and culture to improve the quality of life of residents and visitors.
The Tse’k’wa Heritage Society commissioned LEES+Associates to design an amphitheatre at the Tse’k’wa National Historic Site as part of their initiative to incorporate interpretive elements into the site.
The site’s location, on the plateau of the Peace Region near the City of Fort St. John, lies along early routes of northward migration for the Dane-zaa First Nations; they consider the site to be a hallmark of their long history in the Peace River region.
LEES+Associates has been working with Reimagine Architects and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation (KDFN) since 2018 on redeveloping and expanding the landscapes and spaces around their civic buildings in Whitehorse, Yukon. The KDFN consists of peoples of Southern Tutchone, Tagish, Tlingit, and other diverse backgrounds who live in the lands that define their traditional territories along the headwaters of the Chu Níikwän (known today as the Yukon River).
We’re so proud of the work that we’ve done over the past quarter century that we’d like to spend some time showcasing some of our early, award-winning work. One of LEES+Associates’ early projects was the Woodlands Memorial in New Westminster, BC, which memorialized Canadians with developmental disabilities who died while hospitalized in the Woodlands School.
We are thrilled to introduce Amanda Gebhardt as our new practice lead for Ontario and Eastern Canada. Amanda joined us in April 2023 and has swiftly shown her passion for collaboration and realizing diverse and impactful projects. Her project portfolio includes cemetery expansion development, commemorative spaces, active transportation, complete streets, trails, urban parks, and environmental habitat restoration.
When Erik and Kathi Lees started LEES+Associates in 1998, he built on his long experience in horticulture, landscape design, and parks management. Erik started as part of the “Back to the Land” movement of the early 1970s. Motivated by a deep commitment to environmentalism and an interest in land systems, Erik started his “landscape” journey with a Dutch family in the Nelson area who maintained a greenhouse that grew seasonal plants.
LEES+Associates will provide landscape design for the long-awaited Nunavut Inuit Heritage Centre in Iqaluit. The winning design team of Dorte Mandrup (Lead Architect), Guy Architects (Architect of Record), LEES+Associates, EXP Services, Adjeleian Allen Rubeli, Pageau Morel, Altus Group, and Indigenous consultants Kirt Ejesiak and Alexander Flaherty was announced on July 9th 2023 following an international design competition.