A Conversation With: Laura Stedenfeld, principal of Omnes in Easton
LVB: Tell me more about Omnes and how you got started?
Stedenfeld: Omnes is a multi-faceted design studio practicing in landscape architecture, planning, and art, and we’re based in Easton’s Simon Silk Mill. When I founded the business five years ago, I wanted to take some of the lessons I had learned from working in metropolises around the world and apply them to mid-size cities and rural towns. I also knew I wanted to locate our studio in a beautiful setting that felt creative and peaceful, so the Silk Mill in Easton was the perfect place.
When I started the studio, Omnes immediately leapt into some very complicated large-scale projects. We worked on adaptive re-use of old industrial sites, brownfield waterfronts, and populated urban plazas and streetscapes. The design for Center Square and Hamilton Street in Allentown were some of our first projects, and it’s wild to see them nearing completion five years later.
Omnes also started off working on multi-disciplinary urban planning projects, in cities of all sizes. We started with a plan for parks, conservation areas, and a Riverwalk in Winooski, Vermont, which is one of the densest and most diverse communities in Northern New England. Since then, Omnes is often working with municipalities to plan for their park systems or comprehensive plans, design places that improve the fabric of their cities.
Right now, we are working with a team of economists from Hailstone on a USDA Rural Innovation Challenge Grant for a parks system in rural Pennsylvania, but we’re also planning a park system in dense, industrial Eddystone, Pennsylvania. I love the mix of scales and unique challenges that we’re tasked with solving.
Public engagement is inherent to our work because it’s so public in nature. Engagement with communities is something our studio absolutely loves to do, and public input makes our designs so much better. We work with communities to infuse art, culture, branding, event planning, and public relations in order to enliven planning projects and reach a wide range of people.
LVB: You've been doing some interesting work that people would recognize. Tell me about some of your projects?
Stedenfeld: We work on projects nationally, but a majority of Omnes’ projects are within the Lehigh Valley, Philly, and NYC/NJ region.
We have a massive and beautiful project in Philly with Post Brothers that is nearly complete. Just last year, the first phase of Piazza Alta opened in Northern Liberties, which is am 1100-unit mixed use development that’s applying for LEED Neighborhood Development accreditation. We designed almost five acres of plazas, roof decks, streetscapes, and courtyards, so the landscape has incredible impact on the neighborhood. The conceptual narrative that Omnes created was to form a river of activity flowing through the streets, drawing on the inspiration of the now-buried Cohosink Creek and nearby Delaware River. We developed a complex paving pattern that leads you through the many spaces of the complex, with pockets of activities and amenities along the way. The project also included converting a portion of Germantown Avenue into a woonerf which means “living street” in Dutch. The space integrates both pedestrians and cars in the plaza, and now it’s come to life with festivals, holiday pop-ups, and a Saturday Farmer’s Market.
Many people in the Lehigh Valley will recognize our work in Allentown, where we’re now finalizing the final phase of Hamilton Street’s redesign from 5th through 12th Streets. We are also working on the reconfiguration of Center Square, which is going to be incredibly impactful on the feel of downtown. Omnes was lucky to work on the D&L riverwalk at The Waterfront, and we also designed the bus pavilion and plaza at the LANTA ATC on 7th and Linden Streets.
Right now, Omnes is also collaborating on the Confluence project in Easton. We created a 1-acre plaza that’s owned by City Center and Peron, but completely accessible to Eastonians. We are starting a collaboration with a brilliant sculptor from Pittsburgh, Dee Briggs, to create an iconic sculpture at the intersection of 3rd and Larry Holmes it’s going to be a fantastic threshold into the city.
LVB: What drew you to this kind of work?
Stedenfeld: I always had an affinity for landscape architecture. It became apparent in my college architecture studio, as I was always resisting creating a building, and instead designing the landscapes in incredible detail. I would get into disagreements with my professors about how it would be unethical or nonsensical to put a building on certain sites. Those buildings that I ended up creating started morphing into landscapes, and the line between the disciplines became very blurry to me. It was a wonderful evolution, and I appreciate that balance between architecture and landscape so much in Omnes’ work now.
The impact of landscape architecture was the thing that ultimately drew me toward this discipline of design. My first project in architecture was the design of a gorgeous million-dollar renovation of an estate in Long Island where everything was being imported from Italy to outfit the house. After work one day in NYC, I realized that my neighborhood park probably cost a million dollars and was serving thousands of people instead of just two. At the same time, I was doing urban research at Columbia University with a brilliant architect, Moji Baratloo, who opened my eyes to global patterns of human settlement, emergent issues, climate crisis, and so many exciting topics in urban design. I felt like I had found my discipline, and it was in the blurry lines between landscape, architecture, art, and planning. Regenerative landscapes are one of the greatest tools we have for creating just, sustainable cities.
LVB: How does such design work benefit a community and its overall economy and quality of life?
Stedenfeld: Omnes believes that experiencing nature through the medium of landscape is a right due to everybody on our earth (present and future). We’re not just designing for the current client or condition, but also the generations that come after us, so always have the long-term ethical impact in the fore of our minds. Everyone on our team has this as a shared value, and it really does get imbued in our work.
Our recent work in Allentown is a great example of impacting ecology, economy, and quality of life through design. In the Hamilton Street redesign project, we increased the number of trees by 165% and estimated that it will capture roughly 15.5 tons of carbon every year (at least until maturity). We also enlarged the planting beds and used a palette of native and pollinator-friendly plants.
The benches along the street are stone, so over time they have less of a carbon footprint than manufactured benches and can last centuries if they’re well cared for (rather than, say, a ~50-year lifespan for a wood/metal bench). Our strategy for greening the street was also to establish more shade and comfort for everyone, since every future summer seems bound to be both the hottest on record and coolest that we’re yet to experience. A public project like this can also just generally make a more pleasant setting, which helps small businesses and economic development.
The ability to positively impact the lives of many people is one of the reasons that I practice in landscape and planning. Omnes means “all, everybody, together” in Latin, and it really is the perfect encapsulation of our values and how we work with communities to make great places for all.
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