Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz

If there is a theme running through all the KMD’s work, it is that of Placemaking. Placemaking suggests that to be successful a project needs to cast its own spell on its user and community. Placemaking is both a sensitivity to place and the creation of uniquely useable space. It requires that a number of serious considerations to be taken into account from a project’s initial conception. These include recognizing the architectural impact on users, promoting human interaction, developing a context that responds to the scale of the surrounding environment, and connecting with roots often traceable to indigenous design. Placemaking also requires an understanding and love of the history of the built world.

Placemaking is an architectural approach leading to the creation of a genuine sense of place that both draws people in and entertains them while they are there. KMD’s design philosophy is both highly singular and easily definable. The firm’s most basic convictions are grounded in the fundamental belief that great architecture is less a matter of style than of discovery and innovation. It is a relentless pursuit of finding ways to connect function, need, context, and most importantly, to develop a unique sense of place.