RTKL is all about creating great urban districts with animated public spaces and street life. The firm's unmatched strong reputation for urban design, architecture and mixed-use planning is evidenced by a growing portfolio of projects that meld retail, entertainment, residential and other uses together into holistic environments.
RTKL's work celebrates the aspirations and inclinations of the consumer, addresses the need for social interaction, and capitalizes on the vitality of an enriched environment and experience.
For well over five decades, RTKL has played a lead role in the revitalization of cities around the world, beginning with Baltimore's Charles Center in the 1950s. An international, knowledge-based firm serving a global idea-driven industry, RTKL has grown and adapted its broad spectrum of integrated services to meet and anticipate client needs. Today's market demands specialization and expertise. RTKL anticipated this trend and restructured itself in the mid 1990s into specialized design divisions that include retail/entertainment, residential, hospitality, corporate, health care, and public/institutional. Each of these divisions provides RTKLís clients with expertise typically associated with a small, boutique design firm, yet draws on the large company's resources to provide a full range of services within each specialty.
“Our ever-changing world requires strategic thinking and ideas that respond to economic, political and social forces,” says Thomas Brink AIA, RTKL vice president. “There's renewed interest from the public sector in investing in downtown cultural resources, entertainment and sports venues, and neighborhoods. Young professionals want to cut down on commuting time, and both live and work in a urban pedestrian-oriented environment. Suburban empty nesters are returning to the city, suburbs are perceived as soulless and smart growth initiatives that resonate with the environmentally aware are cropping up throughout the United States.”
Ahead of the trends curve, RTKL is partnering with clients to create the next generation of new urban districts, mixed-use developments, new concept retail/entertainment destinations, live/work environments and traditional neighborhood developments. The Big Picture ideals of urban planning are the backbone of the firm's design philosophy. It's a mind-set that goes beyond buildings as isolated objects in space, considering how they fit into the broader context.
Responding to demand for urban and suburban in-fill development, the firm is presently collaborating with private developers, city and suburban governments, transit agencies and new urban warriors to create 24/7 environments that promote a sense of community and a pride of place. The highly successful and award-winning Addison Circle, a mixed-use district north of Dallas, is but one example of RTKL's ability to create financially sound, sustainable and enjoyable environments.
New benchmarks include Mockingbird Station, a 10-acre mixed-use urban village in Dallas that ties directly into light-rail transit and Bond Street Wharf, the centerpiece of Baltimore's Fells Point redevelopment effort. This latest project includes a six-story warehouse style structure that houses office above retail, a waterfront promenade, a public plaza and Phase II residential units. Together with Paseo Colorado, these forward-thinking projects demonstrate that the firm is clearly focused on creating sustainable places that are based on financial, political and social success through a solution-oriented approach grounded in creativity, market reality and client/stakeholder input.
Through urban design, architecture, interior design, graphic design, brand/identity and engineering services, the global team at RTKL provides the ideas that lead to the world's most successful and experiential places.