Making a Grand Statement in Texas

By Mark Derowitsch, Communications

When you work in the state of Texas, you either go big or go home.

Engineers and landscape architects at Olsson went big – on a very grand scale.

Olsson is involved with the development of Grandscape, a massive, one-of-a-kind, mixed-use development project located in the Dallas suburb of The Colony, Texas. To call Grandscape a shopping center would be a gross misrepresentation of reality.

“This is really a destination,” said Wyatt Popp, a civil engineering leader at Olsson and the firm’s project manager for Grandscape. “This is more than a place to shop and be entertained. This is a destination that will draw in people from a huge radius.”

Grandscape is a destination that includes retail stores, entertainment, and beautiful landscapes.

In other words, Grandscape isn’t just a clever name based on wishful thinking. We started working on the project in 2016 and, as of the fall 2020, only about 30 percent of the project is completed and open to the public.

Grandscape spans more than 400 acres and includes nearly 4 million square feet of retail, entertainment, residential, and dining space and attractions. It includes unique dining experiences, residential housing, and an outdoor lawn and stage area for live concerts and events.

Talk about grand.

Anchoring Grandscape are two mega retail stores: Nebraska Furniture Mart (with nearly 1.9 million square feet of space and the main developer) and a Scheel’s store that covers more than 331,000 square feet. In between is something for everyone.

Grandscape includes Galaxy Theatres, a luxury movie experience with state-of-the-art audio, power recliners, and a full-service bar; and Andretti Indoor Karting & Games, which includes a full arcade, laser tag, bowling, dining, and virtual reality experiences in addition to racing.

At the core of Grandscape is a 90-acre lifestyle and entertainment center that includes multiple levels of shops, public and private entertainment spaces, and many one-of-a-kind restaurants. This area also includes The Grotto, a subterrain pedestrian area that contains eateries, shops, gardens, and walkways. The main interior courtyard opens to a large green space.

Our focus is the lifestyle center. We helped modify the master plan (along with HTH Architects out of Los Angeles) to make it more functional for shoppers. We provided the civil engineering work and the landscape architecture design for the center.

“We helped provide the vision for the outdoor components of the center,” Wyatt said. “We helped design a space where people gather and connect with one another.”

Everywhere you look around Grandscape you’ll see the handiwork of landscape architects from Ochsner Hare & Hare, the Olsson Studio. We developed the placemaking for the parking lots and the project’s perimeter, the Grotto, the lifestyle center, and Scheel’s.

Grandscape's landscape includes large, mature trees brought in from another site.

One of the unique aspects of Grandscape is the mature trees planted throughout the development. Korey Schulz of the Olsson Studio explained that the goal was to incorporate large trees to deliver an instant canopy to areas of Grandscape.

We found an unlikely provider of large trees – the worldwide headquarters of retail giant J.C. Penney, which is located about two miles from Grandscape.

“They were redeveloping the J.C. Penney site and selling off large trees, so we worked with a tree broker and bought trees at a fair, reasonable cost,” Korey said. “We started tagging trees at the site, and we initially purchased about 20 trees and later added another 12.”

We had the trees transported to the site, where a makeshift nursery was built to house the trees until they were moved to a permanent location.

“When we tagged the trees, we identified spots for each one and started to place them on the design,” Korey said. “A contractor started placing trees when the timing was right. Typically, planting trees is one of the last things you do in a development project. In this project, we planted some before the buildings were constructed.”

Building around large, mature trees is one feature that makes Grandscape unique.

Grandscape includes a large greenspace for people in the community to use and enjoy.

“In working with Olsson, the idea to save those trees and move them to our project became a reality,” said Katie Wedekind, spokesperson for Grandscape. “Our vision from the beginning has always been to have a place that provides shade and beauty and is an oasis within a city. We wanted it to appear as though we found a beautiful park and decided to build buildings around it and these trees were crucial to getting that right.” Work on Grandscape is ongoing, but nearly 40 businesses have already opened. Grandscape was supposed to hold a grand opening in April 2020, but the global pandemic forced the development to press pause. However, 13 more businesses are under construction and slated to open by early 2021, including the development’s 344-unit residential tower.

It’s expected to take another five years to finish Grandscape. However, the community is already embracing this grand new space.

“From the beginning, we wanted to create a space that was world-class, a place where people from all over the DFW [Dallas/Fort Worth] metro area would want to come explore, experience, and enjoy,” Katie said. “By bringing in many first-tomarket businesses, utilizing technology in unique experiential ways, and creating a physical space that is lush, inviting, beautiful, and relaxing, we feel as though we have begun to achieve this goal. We believe this will be the premier development in the DFW area, if not the U.S.”

Corporate Holiday Giving by Region

By Alicia Krieger, Communications

Since 2018, the Olsson Foundation has celebrated the holidays by gifting multiyear financial commitments to certain organizations.

Each regional leader determined what organization would receive the gifts. Ultimately the organizations selected were:

Nebraska – Girls Inc. Oklahoma – Oklahoma Engineering Foundation

Western – MindSpark Learning

We have a three-year commitment of $5,000 per year to each of these groups to ensure we're able to make a difference in each organization. In 2021, new organizations will be selected. Kansas/Iowa/Missouri/Arkansas – KC STEM Alliance

As we're in our third of the three years of funding for these particular organizations, we'd like to share details about these groups and about how our dollars were spent.

Kansas/Iowa/Missouri/Arkansas – KC STEM Alliance

This past year, with the help of Olsson's donation, the KC STEM Alliance strategic support reached 97,000 students across the region who were enrolled in Project Lead the Way (PLTW) engineering, biomedical sciences, and computer science classes. More than 4,300 students were engaged in FIRST robotics competing locally before the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the final two events. Through the advancement of the STEM Learning Ecosystem in Kansas City, STEM Connect-KC. Eighty-nine STEM providers are listed on the STEM Connect-KC directory, contribute to the calendar of STEM events, and convene regularly to discuss family engagement, reaching all students and developing STEM measurement tools.

The pandemic forced a quick pivot to remote celebrations for the senior capstone students and entrepreneurial workshop. The organization capped off the year in June by hosting a five-part series on Closing the Gender Gap in STEM.

Nebraska – Girls Inc.

Girls, Inc. in Omaha, Nebraska has been able to accomplish quite a bit with the gift from Olsson, including building out many programs.

Operation SMART: The STEM program that is a collaboration between Girls Inc. of Omaha and College of Saint Mary continues. Operation SMART develops girls’ enthusiasm for and skills in science, technology, engineering, and math.

Lego League: Girls in grades 4-6 were able to engage in robotics afterschool activities at Girls Inc. They learned about robotic programming, engineering, and coding concepts while sharpening their math skills, developing their teamwork skills, and showing off their grit.

Bees: Younger girls were introduced to the work of the bees. The 2nd grade group learned about the importance of bees and pollination. They added some hands-on art about bees. Older girls with parental permission were able to suit up and learn how to water and check on beehives.

Building Club: Girls participated in building very cool structures from LEGO blocks, recycled materials, and blocks. They built robots that moved on their own. Other girls built playhouses, underground houses, and pizza machines.

Eureka!: This program continues to support young women who are college-bound and have thoughts about potential careers in STEM by providing education and experiences necessary to help make college and career dreams a reality through externships.

Gardening and cooking classes: Working with program partners, girls learned to grow vegetables, weed gardens, and play in the dirt. They used their produce to make salsa, salads, and other recipes. Four-H facilitated multiple cooking sessions with the girls using all their produce.

Aquaponics: Girls had fun learning how to grow fish and vegetables at the same time via aquaponics. Girls fed the fish and the fish fed their plants through fish waste. Their aquaponics techniques meant they used less water for their crops, which is good for the environment.

Western – MindSpark Learning

MindSpark is working on getting the Southern Colorado Education Accelerator (EA) initiated. The original plan was to start in August 2020, but this got delayed because of COVID-19. Currently, MindSpark works to empower educators with industry-oriented professional learning experiences, resulting in more students being prepared for the modern workforce. While delayed due to COVID, MindSpark is working to initiate its Southern Colorado Education Accelerator (EA) for a winter 2021 start. In addition to our donation, Olsson employees will serve as resources to classroom teachers.

EA is a leadership program that supports district and school leaders, as well as the next generation of leaders by giving them the blueprint to identify and solve their biggest problem of practice. The EA program transforms districts and schools for the future through the development of innovative cultures capable of empowering teachers and maximizing student engagement.

Oklahoma – Oklahoma Engineering Foundation (OEF)

Oklahoma Engineering Foundation (OEF) has had two primary fundraising campaigns recently.

The capital campaign is targeted to raise $30,000 in the fundraising season so they can ensure programs like MathCounts, Engineering Fair, and OEF Scholarships continue to provide opportunities for youth to stay involved with STEM. These funds will go directly to the capital budget and provide staff and materials that will be directly involved with planning, organizing, and executing programs.

The program campaign is targeted to raise $20,000 in the fundraising season so they can start a new program in STEM during the Engineering Fair that is relevant to today’s technology in STEM. Two growing STEM trends are drones and artificial intelligence. With the money from the program campaign, these new activities can be promoted, awarded, and planned for for the upcoming program year.