Feature—Bellomy
Page 18 | Landmarks 2007
STORY: LAURA GUTSCHKE
PHOTO: ARTIE LIMMER
A
FTER SURVIVING CANCER,
Gary Bellomy (‘74, B.S. in Landscape Architecture) engaged in
professional soul-searching, reevaluating his career direction
despite an enviable portfolio packed with grand
design projects from across the country and
abroad as far as Bahrain and Japan.
“In 1995, I was diagnosed with colon cancer.
It made me think about what I was doing professionally and if I could contribute to the greater
good in what I do,” said Bellomy. “When you survive cancer, you say to yourself, ‘What am I going
to do with this second chance?’”
He is principal, founder and managing partner
of Austin-based Land Design Studio, which for
the last 10 years has built a reputation for incorporating the new urbanism concept in many of
its public and private projects.
Also known as traditional neighborhood development, new urbanism promotes building
mixed-used communities that are connected, livable and walkable. The concept is an about face
from the suburban sprawl of recent decades,
where new neighborhoods are pushed outside a
city and the automobile is the dominant means
of transportation.
“Traditional urban neighborhoods can be
more dense and compact, taking pressure off the
land,” said Bellomy.
He first incorporated the philosophy in 1988
on the Cedar Park Town Center project, an urban
plan and development code for the City of Cedar
Park, a small bedroom community northwest of
Austin that had experienced explosive growth in
recent years. His firm was charged with facilitating a master plan that included creating a downtown and overall community identity.
For a 400-acre track inside city limits but not
yet developed, LDS created a concept that included three neighborhood mixed-use villages
with housing, shopping and office space and a
mainstreet oriented downtown featuring retailers, offices, a park and greenbelt. Six years later,
the first of the villages began to be built, and another has since been completed. The plan continues to unfold today.
“Most projects we do are planning far ahead of
the curve on what ultimately gets built,”
said Bellomy.
A VISION FOR THE AUSTIN
OF TOMORROW
Another tenet of new urbanism is building
new mixed-use, high-density neighborhoods in
idle, abandoned or underutilized areas of a city
to protect natural resources surrounding the city.
Austin is ideal for land reuse projects because it
sits over the Edwards Aquafier recharge zone and
is expected to double in population to 2.8 million
by about 2030.
To effectively manage such growth, the City
of Austin has assembled a team of land planning,
urban design and transportation consultants for
the redevelopment of a predominantly industrial
area known as North Burnet/Gateway Planning
Area. Bellomy is task leader for urban design on
the project.
IN 1995, I WAS DIAGNOSED
WITH COLON CANCER
The 2,300-acre site sits in northwest Central
Austin and contains the interchanges of Loop
1(MOPAC), US 183 and Loop 360. The Capitol
Metro commuter rail line runs through the area,
which is also under consideration for the proposed Austin-San Antonio Intermunicipal Commuter Rail line.
Bellomy helped orchestrate public workshops
in summer 2006 to gather input and educate interested parties on the challenges Austin faces
and how the redevelopment of the North Burnet/
Gateway area could address housing, environmental, transportation and quality of life issues.
The public is kept up-to-date on project progress
at the Web site www.northburnetgateway.com.
“Most cities don’t have a vision of what they
want to be—we start there. In the redevelopment plan for this area of Austin, we first ask,
‘What do you want to be?’ Once you have a clear
vision, you can proceed,” Bellomy said. “The
work involves making the community better, so
there is a lot of consensus to begin with.”
The vision sets the direction for the actual building of the project that will evolve over decades.
GRANDER VIEW FOR
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Bellomy’s involvement in planning projects in
their earliest conceptual stages demonstrates his
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grand-scale view of landscape architecture. In
landscape architecture would evolve over time is
known for its collaborative team of cross-disci-
not surprising to him, given the advice he and his
plinary professionals who address town plan-
fellow students received by now retired Landscape
ning, urban design, landscape architecture, land
planning, civic design and design/build.
“The chief role of the landscape architect is being a steward of the land,” said Bellomy. “Landscape architecture can have a role in community
planning, in making a difference on a visionary
scale for the community just in addition to ad-
Profession, Oklahoma Chapter ASLA, 1981;
Outstanding Service Award as Chapter
President, Oklahoma Chapter ASLA, 1980.
Page 20 | Landmarks 2007
“I remember in Dr. Musiak’s class someone
asked how long it takes to be a good designer,
and he said 10 years. People were shocked, but
looking back I understand why he said that. Design is about people and planning, and you have
to live awhile to see how all that works.”
His shift in being involved in dramatic redevelopments that may take 10 to 20 years to be built
Landscape architects make our cities better, but if
gives Bellomy great personal satisfaction.
impact on the quality of life of people.”
Family: Bellomy and his wife, Carol,
have been married since 1985. They have
three sons: Nicholas, Connor and Wes.
Community Involvement: Chairman
of Urban Plan II for the Urban Land Institute, Austin District Council, a grassroots
group that teaches high school economics
students a program on land development
and how it impacts a community’s growth;
appointed to City of Dallas Environmental
Quality Committee, 1986; first gubernatorial appointee to the Oklahoma State Board
of Landscape Architects, 1980.
Professional Involvement: Past chairman
of Austin Section of the American Society
of Landscape Architects, 1995.
Awards: Distinguished Alumnus Award,
College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Texas Tech University, 2005;
Outstanding Contribution Award to the
Architecture department chair Dr. Tom Musiak.
dressing the details of the built environment.
you work on a bigger scale, you can have a bigger
FACT FILE
The idea that Bellomy’s skills and viewpoint of
the last decade, Land Design Studio has become
“I can honestly say I still enjoy getting up and
going to work every day,” Bellomy said.
GARY BELLOMY PROFESSIONAL
PORTFOLIO
Hudgins, Thompson and Ball,Tulsa, OK—
1974-1981
Bellomy was hired in the architecture and
engineering firm’s new landscape architecture
division.
“It was like a graduate school environment
because I learned how the business and professional consulting practice works,” said Bellomy.
MYRICK-NEWMAN-DAHLBERG,
DALLAS, TX—1981-1987
Bellomy was eventually named partner at
the landscape architecture and planning firm.
In the mid-1980s he was named director of
the firm’s Austin office.
In 1985, Bellomy was part of the team that
designed a $10 million swimming pool project
for the Crown Prince of Bahrain to entertain
foreign guests. The facility also included a waterfall, behind which was a disco. He was able
to coordinate his trip to Bahrain, ultimately
traveling around the world, to present the design plan with his wedding so that he and his
wife, Carol, could honeymoon in Hawaii.
EDAW , ATLANTA, GA—1987-1991
SLA STUDIO, HOUSTON—1991-1993
When the Austin economy went to sleep in
the mid-1980s, Bellomy accepted an offer to be
director of design for the southeast regional office of San Francisco-based EDAW, an international design architecture, urban planning and
environmental consulting firm. Bellomy worked
on several projects in Africa and the Middle East,
including a proposed site for the United States
Embassy in the Sudan.
“I learned a lot about embassy defense on
that project, and I haven’t needed it since,” Bellomy said.
One of his favorite undertakings while in Atlanta was the plaza around the Tennessee State
Aquarium, which opened in 1992 along the Tennessee River in Chattanooga and helped anchor
a revitalization of the area. The site of the museum is believed to be one of the locations where
the Trail of Tears began in 1838, when the United States government forced Creek and Cherokee men and women to relocate to Oklahoma.
Included in the plaza around the aquarium are
tributes to the story and culture of the Native
Americans who lived in the river area.
He joined SLA Studio as a senior associate. Among his more interesting assignments
was serving as project manager for a mountain resort master plan for the Hakuba village
in Nagano, Japan, ultimately the site for the
1998 Winter Olympics. Hakuba is located in
the Japanese Alps and hosted several Olympic
skiing events.
LAND DESIGN STUDIO—1993PRESENT
Land Design Studio originated in 1993 as a
design branch of an Austin-based landscape
construction company. Today, the firm is a
separate full-service planning, design and
construction management group consisting
of Bellomy, a partner and four other professionals.
“We stay small because it’s simpler that
way. Everyone is involved in projects, and being small allows me to be heavily involved
with every project,” said Bellomy.
Projects can be viewed online at www.landdesignstudio.com.
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