Minneapolis – St. Paul Landscape Architects

Mike Goergen, ASLA

Mike holds a BS in Landscape Architecture from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. An industry veteran, he's played many different roles on both sides of the business – design and construction. Mike approaches every project with a passion for excellence and love of the outdoors.

What is your favorite part of being a landscape architect?

I love shaping a space to make it comfortable for people. Landscape Architects study the elements that make an outdoor space, like the boundaries, the canopy over your head, the proportions, the heights, and the surfaces. My primary goal is to create a space that feels “right.”

What was the most challenging part of your training?

We studied a lot of drainage, grading, and construction documentation. Landscape Architects are licensed by the State to protect public safety, so we need to understand how to prevent water problems, how to build stairs, ramps, decks, and patios within safety codes, and how to design creative drainage solutions. This is the mathematical part of the study.

Justin Dorschied, ASLA

Justin Dorschied is an avid fan of all things Wisconsin and enjoys canoeing, trout fishing, and volleyball. He has worked in the landscape industry since 2001 and has been a licensed landscape architect since February 2015.

What is your favorite part of being a landscape architect?

My favorite part about being a landscape architect is having the ability to work with the natural environment and also developing creative solutions for challenging projects.

What was the most challenging part of your training?

Finding time to study. Having been in the industry for a number of years and wearing a number of different hats during that time there was not much on the licensing exam that I had not already encountered in the real world. The best training is doing.

What is something that people would be surprised to learn about your job?

How little design we actually do. Although we do get the privilege of designing some amazing projects, a lot of time is spent on many other elements of design/build. Project management, estimating, billing, and meetings being what takes up a majority of my time when not designing.

David Tupper, ASLA

David has been in the Landscape industry for over 37 years and a licensed landscape architect since 1998. He believes Landscape Architecture is a creative connection that ties together the home, the land, and the client's vision. David loves to create spaces that respect our natural world and enhance the quality of his clients' lives.

What is your favorite part of being a Landscape Architect?

I can combine art and science to improve the quality of my client's everyday lives and impact the experiences they enjoy within their properties.

What was the most challenging part of your training?

The time commitment required for design studio classes. I spent long hours of studio time listening to lectures on conceptualization, site grading exercises, and creating high-level graphics, documents, plans, and imagery that were then presented to my peers within my class. Many times all-nighters were put in to complete projects on time.

What is something people would be surprised to learn about your job?

A Landscape Architect wears many different hats. We're knowledgeable in multiple areas of expertise, such as site grading and roadway design, construction details and specification writing, understanding environmental impacts on a site, and collaboration with various stakeholders and communities during a design project.