Big News from the Boardwalk: MAC Construction Wins 2025 Master Craftsmanship Award!

We have some exciting news to share! The Sylvan Lake Boardwalk has officially earned a 2025 Construction Industry Center (CIC) Master Craftsmanship Award.

For those who have walked the refurbished path around Sylvan Lake, you know it’s more than just a walkway; it’s an effort designed to immerse people in nature while limiting the damage so many visitors can cause. We were lucky to design this careful intervention and lucky again to get Kade and Shawn to build it for GFP!

Taking home a Master Craftsmanship Award is a huge nod to the "boots on the ground" effort required to pull off a project in such an iconic, environmentally sensitive location.

I stole this picture from MAC’s post on Facebook.

These guys are people who care about every joint, every beam, and every bolt. We want to give a massive shoutout to the crew who steered this ship at MAC:

• Craig Oyler (Project Manager): For the seamless coordination and the occassiona call asking, “What' now?”

• Kade McVey and Shawn Klein: For the day-to-day grit and onsite effort that kept everything moving forward. And for not being afraid to crawl under the deck to install a couple extra screws.

• So - cheers to you guys. For the exceptional skill and dedication to quality that defines "Master Craftsmanship." This boardwalk looks GOOOOOOD.

Why This Matters to Us:

The Black Hills are our backyard, Custer State Park is our home turf, and Sylvan Lake is arguably its crown jewel. Being tasked with transforming the boardwalk was a responsibility we didn’t take lightly. We’ve spent our lives visiting and enjoying this special place. This award validates our commitment to:

1. Precision: Building structures that stand the test of time and South Dakota weather.

2. Quality: Ensuring the design matches the majesty of the surrounding granite spires.

3. Community: Improving the way locals and visitors experience our natural wonders.

A Wintery View of the Boardwalk.

Congratulations again to Craig, Kade, Shawn, and the entire MAC Construction crew! Next time you’re out at Custer State Park, take a stroll across the award-winning boardwalk and see the craftsmanship for yourself. We couldn’t be prouder of this team!

Dickinson's Legacy Square is a good place to be.

We love seeing our projects get attention for bringing communities together.

Side note: the logo is cool as all get out too.

Dinosaur Park is nearing completion!

Don't think we can imagine anything more gratifying than enabling access to a place that previously couldn’t have only been experienced from the bottom of the hill by those with limited mobility. End of June 2024 we got to tour Dinosaur Park with members of the Disability Awareness and Accessibility Committee, the Mayor, and several City Council members and it really hit home how much this project opens a loved Black Hlls icon to those that couldn’t reach the top before! Honored to be part of it! #thisislandscapearchitecture #universaldesign

Made the news too: KOTA / KEVN
Matt got to be on camera: KELOLAND

Dickinson's Legacy Square starts to show it's strength!

When our friends at JLG asked us to help with this project, we knew it had the potential to transform the Dickinson downtown and shape generations of experience for locals. The project team was great and the City persevered making a one-of-a-kind destination that invites their whole community to gather.

And now. . . well folks are noticing! This is from the Legacy Square Facebook Page:

𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐔𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫: 𝐃𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐜𝐲 𝐒𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐞

The Main Street Excellence award is given to recognize communities whose efforts embody all four pillars of the Main Street Initiative: Smart, Efficient Infrastructure; 21st Century Workforce; Economic Diversification, and Healthy, Vibrant Communities.

The City of Dickinson is incredibly proud of the addition of Dickinson Legacy Square to our downtown community. From its original conceptualization to our first full season of programming, it has been a work and labor of love from our community.

We are grateful to those involved in the planning and design, construction, fundraising, and staffing, and to all who have donated to make this dream a reality. We feel truly privileged and honored to be recognized with the Governor’s Main Street Excellence Award and we look forward to the continued community partnerships and shared success that this venue will bring to the City of Dickinson.

The write up in the Dickinson Free Press highlights the governor’s presentation of the award! Very cool. The accompanying video is chill: check it out over in Facebook!

Beyond that it feels like Legacy Square is helping the movers and shakers of the City think about how they prioritize investment in their city - keeping it local! Here’s a quick news report on that!

And here’s one that show’s how fun it is down there!

COVER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE! WOW!

Here’s a little story. . .

Timothy Schuler of LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE came to visit us last summer. We toured him around the Hills. We told him stories about rural Landscape Architecture practice. We introduced him to the dogs, Mike Stahl, and the Custer Wolf. We shared family stories and heard about life as a writer. What a fun time.

Then a few months went by and while we knew we were going to have a short article written about our work in the northern hills we had no idea it was going to be on the COVER of LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE!

We were driving when we found out and had to pull over and hyperventilate while we processed!

The October cover of Landscape Architecture Magazine featured our work in Lead! Wow!

This issue was the current issue during the 2023 Landscape Architecture Convention in Minneapolis and man, did we feel honored.

This article is fantastically written, with beautiful photography by Louise Johns - an amazing photographer who has a film about her father and her called “The Wonder and the Worry” premiering at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival @bigskydocfest in Missoula, MT on February 25th. She’s amazing. And so is Timothy. We are so happy to have gotten to know them both.

The article is a good summation of our philosophy of working in small towns and rural communities. You can read it with a free Zinnio account here.

The boys at Complete got themselves an award!

Cemeteries are always interesting project sites, and we are proud of our long history in Deadwood working around the final resting places of some of the Black Hills Legends. We’ve tackled a few projects up there, and recent improvements that Complete Contracting Solutions accomplished received an award from the Construction Industry for the stone masonry.

Nice work guys!

Rural Futures Collaborative

At Tallgrass, we think a lot about rural places and what they need to thrive (thanks for the language about that Dakota Resources!). Access to good design that speaks to the needs and values of each community is only a part of that equation. Tanya had the incredible opportunity to present some of our experiences and the important lessons rural communities and people have taught us as part of the Rural Design Now session at the ASLA conference last fall in San Francisco. And now we are excited to share our contribution to the Rural Futures Collaborative. Check it out!

Custer's Old Elementary School Comes Down

Watching Custer’s Elementary School come down the last month and a half is a little bittersweet for Tallgrass Principle Matt. He can remember hunting for garnets while waiting in line to go in the south side door, eating lunch in the old lunch room downstairs, and the big deal when they built the new lunch room / gym! There were a lot of memories for Custer in that building and seeing it go completely away seems like a waste.

Demolition!

Interesting to look back at some of the work we’ve done around this site over the years. We originally worked on a site master plan for the facility which included public meetings, lots of discussion, and a healthy report. This was with Gene Fennell and was super interesting for us to bring our efforts to our hometown. Here’s the Master Plan graphic from that effort.

One thing you’ll notice in that image is a FUTURE POOL! In my mind the pool would have had a climbing wall above it, movie nights, and a zero depth entry. Unfortunately, Custer has never had a Lottery winner so the pool was never that serious of a consideration. However, if you ask around - that pool is the main reason lots of folks in town buy the powerball!

Another project that was interesting for Matt was the sculpture Vigilance from Burning Beetle. Where do you place Vigilance in town? At the time, the end of 4th Street was planned to be the entry of the new Community Center, so it seemed like the logical place. The City agreed and that’s where it was installed. Now we are wondering if we need to move it!

Here’s the plan Matt Made for the Arts Council and Cappie (the artist).

Click on this image for the presentation!

Our Inspiration! Sharon Vogel!

One of our most important collaborations has been with the Cheyenne River Housing Authority in Eagle Butte, SD. The whole staff there is really great, but their leadership team is inspirational beyond our ability to relate. Sharon Vogel is the Executive Director and her knowledge and understanding of housing in Cheyenne River and the State of South Dakota is unparalleled.

Well, we were googling along and found this incredible interview with her that you should stop everything and immediately read.

Over the years the many and varied projects we’ve worked on with this group have been awesome, frustrating, agonizing, hopeful, and difficult. There are real issues, real opportunities, and real challenges here. And really - no better leader to navigate these demands than Sharon. It is really interesting to hear/read her talk about these issues. Her context for their work stretches from Washington D.C. to Thunder Butte and her passion for helping her people is all over this page. Wow.

The one image in the article is from the Badger Subdivision Master Plan that we co-created with CRHA and our design team at the time. These documents are evolutionary and it is interesting to see how things move and change with new opportunities.

https://archleague.org/article/cheyenne-river-reservation-housing-authority/

How I found Tallgrass.

My name is Rachel Drietz and here’s the story of how I ended up at Tallgrass Landscape Architecture.

During college I was looking for a part-time job to help pay living expenses and I ended up getting an interview at a local brewery. The owner interviewed me and ultimately decided not to hire me because I would be graduating in the spring, and he didn’t think it would be feasible to hire me just for me to leave in a few months.

 After the interview we got to talking and he asked about what I was going to college for, where I was from, so on and so on. When I told him I was going to college for Landscape Architecture, he said “Hey, have you heard of Tallgrass?”. I said, “Yes, because they had come to an SDSU Christmas banquet a few years ago.” Turned out that he grew up in Custer and he knew Matt. Talk about a small world, here I am trying to just get a part-time job and this man hands me a business card with a phone number to contact Tallgrass. Who knew a simple interview at a brewery could set the course for the start of my career.

Graduation was just around the corner, and I finally decided to reach out. They invited me to come out and chat with them. I was so nervous, but they were so easy to talk to and they made me feel so comfortable. They weren’t sure if they would be able to take me on as a new employee, but they said they would let me know! A few days later Tanya called me to offer me a job just for the summer and of course I accepted. A promise of three months turned into five years and the rest is history.

Tallgrass Book Club: Pushed Out

Ryanne Pulgeram offers an alarming glimpse into the structural forces behind rural gentrification that impacts many communities in rural America, particularly the West. A must-read for any landscape architect that works in rural or "tourist" areas - or who comes from a rural hometown that goes to revitalize the community through development.

Tallgrass Restaurant Guide #1

We get to travel around a bit and enjoy finding those restaurants we absolutely love to visit. There are too many to list, but we’ll give you the insider’s guide for a few of our favorite spots in our favorite towns in our favorite side of our state!

El Jefe’s in Lead South Dakota: Matt says that Tanya will make excuses to have extra meeting in the northern hills if it means lunch at El Jefe’s.

Custer Wolf in Custer is our home base. Our office away from the office. Come on down and we’ll buy you a beer under the patio. Love this place. You can leave us messages in mug 42.

Buffalo Dreamer is our special treat night out in Hot Springs.

Silk Road. Man. Hot Springs. We’d climb mountains to eat with Farruk and Merri who once saved Matt’s life with lunch. He was hungry, and at the end of his road and they were there! So good. Yum. And - bonus - there may be a dance party at Silk Road when you arrive! Or, if you are lucky you might get to experience Silk Road when they take over The Space, a cool multi-function venue around the corner in Hot Springs.

We have so many more. . . so check back for more updates.

ENJOY.

The Space.