Business Member Highlight: HKGi

Below is a contribution from GMPT business member HKGi. For more information, please visit www.hkgi.com.

HKGi is a Minneapolis-based landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm with 21 employees and a passion for community engagement.

Since 1982, our expert planners and landscape architects have provided system planning, master planning, and engagement services, including the development of master plans that meet the requirements of the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission (GMRPTC) for regional designation. 

At HKGi, we work with communities to develop construction documents and administration for a wide variety of park, trail, and streetscape projects, including athletic facilities, playgrounds, natural area restorations, and urban plazas and gateways. Our team is experienced in grant writing, municipal planning services, bicycle-pedestrian planning, and comprehensive community planning. Our park and trail planning work in Greater Minnesota has helped clients secure over $13 million in GMRPTC and DNR grants. To date, we have completed over 13 master plans for cities and counties around the state.

Our staff loves to get outside to enjoy the parks, trails, and communities that we work in every day. Some of our recent Greater Minnesota projects include:

• Sherburne County Grams Park Nature Play — HKGi helped the County develop the initial concept plan, complete the DNR Outdoor Rec Grant application, and develop construction documents to implement the play features.
• Stearns County Parks, Trails, and Recreation Master Plan — HKGi is working with county staff to facilitate an engagement process, complete an inventory of existing features, and determine strategies and recommendations for future system implementation.
• Olmsted County Oxbow Nature Center — HKGi staff developed initial concepts through construction documents, working with an architect to design the new nature center building.
• Olmsted County Chester Woods Amphitheater — HKGi developed the design through construction documents, partnering with a civil engineer to develop the amphitheater in the park.
• Park and Trail System Plans in Alexandria and Nisswa — HKGi worked with these communities to develop system plans that will provide guidance to those communities as they plan and budget for not only future improvements but also for continued maintenance and operations as their communities grow.
• Steele County Beaver Lake Park — HKGi provided park planning and landscape architecture services to help the County explore potential park expansion and improvement ideas as part of a larger county road improvement project. HKGi developed three concepts to help the County understand potential options for low, medium, and high levels of impact and investment.
• Otsego Carrick’s Landing River Access Improvements — HKGi worked with the City of Otsego to develop a concept plan and complete a DNR Outdoor Rec Grant application for river access improvements on the Mississippi River in a city park. The improvements are scheduled to be built in 2024.

With a multi-disciplinary staff of landscape architects and planners, we love to help clients take projects from the drafting table to the construction site. Our community-focused approach places the client’s and the community’s needs at the heart of the process, and our professionals use their experience, technical expertise, creativity, and passion to deliver creative solutions that prepare client communities for the future.

To learn more about the work of HKGi and how they can help develop your next parks and trails project, please visit our website or contact Vice President Gabrielle Grinde at gabrielle@hkgi.com.