ABOUT

Livable Cities Studio is a mission-driven urban design, planning and landscape architecture studio committed to building cities for lived experiences that celebrate social connection and inclusivity. We are city builders who understand the responsibility that comes with addressing the complex needs of urbanization through innovative solutions in the built environment. Our work transforms cities, neighborhoods and communities by creating living spaces with distinct value for the people who use them.

Our work in urban planning ranges from parks, plazas, and streetscapes to urban corridors, districts, neighborhoods, and citywide strategic planning. We reconsider the traditional role of infrastructure by emphasizing people, natural systems and new forms of public space. From large-scale stormwater infrastructure to transportation improvements, we look to leverage infrastructure investments to shape cities by providing public spaces that unite residents, visitors and all people of each city, neighborhood and community we serve.

It’s the people who use our designs that bring the place to life. Our people-first mentality starts in the studio, by using processes, methods and digital innovation that emphasize the human experience. We believe that locals know their community better than anyone else, and we’re committed to creating an engaging process that allows us to listen to their collective voices while providing a roadmap that delivers on what we heard.

We always look beyond the parameters of a specific project to unlock its potential to affect catalytic change within a community. With our eyes to the future, we are constantly building collaborative partnerships that provide the springboard for unforeseen challenges and solutions, resulting in ongoing innovation, refinement and reapplication that will elevate public spaces for generations to come.

We are a certified WBE, DBE, EBE and SBE in the City and County of Denver.

MEET OUR TEAM

Meredith Wenskoski

president

President and Founder of Livable Cities Studio, Meredith Wenskoski is an urban designer, planner, and landscape architect whose work focuses on people, equity, and resilience. With a passion for designing spaces that emphasize connection and the human experience, Meredith’s 20 years of experience spans parks and public space design, streetscapes, urban design, public housing, and parks planning. With a focus on the intersection of housing, equity, public realm, and resiliency, Meredith’s human-centered design work creates long-term benefits for people and places. Meredith is distinguished for her strategic leadership, collaborative spirit, and ability to build and navigate partnerships across sectors and functions. Her work on both planning and implementation allows her to seamlessly transition between a variety of project scales bringing a broader understanding to each one. Meredith is known for her ability to navigate and build partnerships, her interdisciplinary team leadership, her responsiveness to clients and her excellent communication skills.

Todd Wenskoski

principal

Todd is an Urban Designer and Principal at Livable Cities Studio and has over 20 years of planning and redevelopment experience in both the public and private sectors. Throughout his career, he has been responsible for leading numerous multi-disciplinary teams, establishing long-range visions and guiding them through strategic implementation with an emphasis on the role of public open-space as a way to stimulate growth and create socially active spaces. He specializes in complicated urban design and planning projects focused on redevelopment, mobility, public space design, community outreach and city building. Most recently, in his role as Deputy Director of Denver Mayor Hancock’s North Denver Cornerstone Collaborative (NDCC), Todd directed and oversaw a portfolio of planning initiatives and capital projects totaling over $100 million in public investment of multi-modal infrastructure, parks, and waterfronts. In addition, Todd has been a regular studio instructor and critic at the University of Colorado Denver, a studio critic at the University of Texas, Auburn University and a Career Discovery instructor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Will Viitanen

associate principal + landscape architect 

Will is an associate principal and landscape architect at Livable Cities Studio with more than 10 years of experience leading and designing unique projects across a variety of sectors and scales, from international civic and university campuses to local parks and gardens. Will’s work explores the power of landscape in addressing complex social, economic, and environmental issues through interventions that weave architecture and landscape as one. His background in architecture informs his sensibility toward design thinking, craft, and detailingwhile his landscape architecture and planning experience lends itself to an integrated, place-based approach to sustainable design, performance, and resilience. Will’s vision, leadership, and attention to quality ensure success for projects and teams.

Will holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Colorado Denver and a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from the University of Colorado Boulder. He is active in the Downtown Denver Partnership, ULI, and AIA.

Yishuen Lo

senior associate + landscape designer

Yishuen is an senior associate, urban designer, landscape designer and visual communications team leader at Livable Cities Studio. Yishuen has diverse interests in landscape architecture, urban design, computational design, architectural visualization, user experience design, and emerging technologies. Her project experience includes public spaces and parks, urban design, master planning, transit-oriented development, complete streets, and mixed-use development. Yishuen is known for her ability to improve design process with emerging technology, and to develop effective ways to use technological tools and visual communication to solve complex design challenges.

Yishuen believes great design starts with the end users in mind and designs for human experiences through technologies and landscape architecture. Yishuen received her B.A. in Urban Studies and Master of Landscape Architecture from The University of Texas at Austin, and enjoys cycling, shadowboxing, hiking, coding, sketching, and VR workout in her spare time.

Conrey Morris

associate + landscape architect

Conrey is an associate and landscape architect skilled in design, planning, project management, 3D modeling, technical documentation, graphic design, and visualization. Since joining Livable Cities Studio in 2017, Conrey has worked on projects of all phases and scales, with particular emphasis on urban infill, streetscape revitalization, and affordable housing. Conrey sees the true value of design as a medium for social improvement and aims to positively influence the communities he works with by tackling key issues through comprehensive design and building relationships with mission-based organizations. Conrey earned his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Colorado State University, where his studies focused on global environmental sustainability and sociology, he served as the President of CSU’s Student Chapter of ASLA, and earned the department’s Exemplary Leadership Award. Currently, he champions the integration of BIM/Revit into our studio workflow and serves the broader design community as a member of the ASLA Colorado/Wyoming Executive Board.

Melanie Carpenter

landscape architect

Melanie is a landscape architect at Livable Cities Studio whose talents and experience span an extensive range of project types, both public and private. She has worked both nationally and internationally, equipping her with a depth of experience in streetscapes, parks, playgrounds, and on-structure spaces. Her driven attitude pushes her to seek the best outcomes possible for a project and dig deep to uncover a site’s inherent identity. Melanie’s projects celebrate each project site individually, recognizing each site’s context and narrative as unique. She is focused on seeing projects through construction and creating meaningful and tangible impacts for communities. Melanie holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree, also from the University of Minnesota.

Chelsea Gieryic

landscape designer + planner 

Chelsea is a landscape designer and certified planner at Livable Cities Studio with a diverse educational background and a breadth of experience in public and private projects. She is focused on combining research, health equity, public engagement, and artistic intervention to design places for communities and the environment. With experience in coordinating city-wide public engagement efforts, Chelsea is passionate about collaborating with communities to create impactful designs and vision documents. She earned her Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado Denver in 2021 where her studies focused on environmental justice through landscape planning, and she was awarded the ASLA Student Honor Award for her project work. Chelsea is active in the ASLA Colorado/Wyoming Chapter, serving on the executive board as the Vice President of Communications. 

Lauren Kelly

landscape designer

Lauren is a landscape designer at Livable Cities Studio. She brings dedication and enthusiasm to streetscape, park, and public realm design. Lauren is passionate about interdisciplinary work and highly values research and innovation in all her projects. She embraces design as a pathway to stronger social communities and improved ecological environments. Lauren earned her Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado Denver in 2022, where her studies focused on environmental equity and public realm improvements. She also served as CU Denver’s ASLA student chapter president. Lauren enjoys running, skiing, gardening, and cooking in her free time.

Madison Wulfkuhle

landscape designer

Madison is a landscape designer at Livable Cities Studio. As a designer, she is passionate about creating iconic, experience-driven places and is inspired by narrative and placemaking design that is rooted into the experience. Madison earned her Master of Landscape Architecture from Kansas State University in 2022, where she was awarded the Prairie Gateway Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects’ Honor and Merit Awards for her work. She is a thriftier extraordinaire and enjoys the great outdoors, hanging with her friends, and exploring Denver on her off hours. 

Kristen Polizzi

studio + marketing manager

Kristen is the Studio and Marketing Manager at Livable Cities Studio. She graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Journalism and has eight years of industry experience. Kristen has a keen eye for design, an affinity for local interests, and particularly enjoys pursuits involving preservation and the public realm. Skilled in editorial writing and editing, Kristen has worked as a feature writer and a copy editor for two daily publications. She loves yoga, collecting vinyl, discovering local music, and being outside.

OUR SERVICES

Landscape Architecture

We create public landscapes that promote social engagement and connect people to each other and nature. We offer landscape architectural design services from project conception to construction for parks, plazas, pubic infrastructure, streetscapes and other designed spaces.

Urban Design & Planning

We are city builders, shaping the built environment at the urban scale and creating living places with distinct value by transforming communities into places of greater vibrancy and public use. Our work in urban design and planning ranges from small plazas and streetscapes to urban corridors, districts, neighborhoods, and citywide strategic planning.

Civic & Ecological Infrastructure Design

Our work reconsiders the traditional role of infrastructure as a single purpose solution and engineered design to address a functional need. We see infrastructure design as an integrated solution that can create places for people and amenities for cities. Our projects range from large-scale stormwater infrastructure to transportation improvements and look to leverage infrastructure investments to shape cities and provide civic amenities for communities.

Public Engagement

People who live in the community and those who experience it day in and day out are critical voices. We lead and organize different forms of fun and creative public meetings that are meaningful, accessible, and engaging for the community and stakeholders.

Graphic Communication

We believe visual and graphic communication is a critical part of making design and planning more accessible to a broader audience, and a vital way to engage people in the process. Our work includes virtual reality experiences, project visualizations and other forms of graphic material that captures ideas, tell a story and capture information so it can be shared with a broader audience.

Project Management & Client Representative

We believe project leadership and management is built on a foundation of open communication, collaboration, and a lasting relationship with our Clients and teams. We offer project management and client representative services from visioning to implementation for large redevelopments, planning and major infrastructure projects.

Office

3827 Lafayette St #135
Denver, Colorado 80205

Contact Us

  • info@livable-cities.com
  • (303) 800-2201