Bench Site Design Inc.

05/13/2026

We are thrilled to share that BENCH has won a 2026 CSLA Award of Excellence for DeHart Community Park. Situated in Kelowna’s Lower Mission neighbourhood, DeHart Community Park opened to the public in May 2025, and was immediately embraced by the community. It has been a delight to see how well-used it is, and to hear about how much it is enjoyed and appreciated.

The project sensitively integrates intensive active and passive programming into a high-performance, climate-positive framework. Carbon accounting was embedded into the design process from project initiation. Carbon and capital budgets were treated as parallel constraints, and the park was designed for 2080 climate projections to ensure long-term sequestration and resilience. BENCH led a highly collaborative design and implementation process, and the project’s success is the result of the diverse contributions of many. We congratulate and thank everyone who shared their unique perspectives, vision, knowledge, skills and time to make this project come to life.

To learn more about this year’s award recipients, visit www.csla-aapc.ca/awards/2026-awards-excellence. The list of award-winning projects is impressive and demonstrates the breath and ambition of landscape architecture projects happening in Canada. Congratulations to all of the winning teams!

Lead Consultant: BENCH Site Design
Client: City of Kelowna

Consultant Team:
EcoPlan International
Matthew Thomson Design
Ecoscape Environmental Consultants
Water Plan It Irrigation
Align Engineering
Smith + Andersen
RJC Engineers
Carscadden Stokes McDonald Architects
Velosolutions Canada
Vector Geomatics
Fletcher Paine Associates

Contractors:
Sierra Landscaping
R&L Excavacting

Photography:
Benjamin Walker Photography

11/19/2025

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Lesley Harty to the position of Associate with BENCH. As an integral member of our team since 2017 when she joined BENCH as a new graduate of the MLA program at UofM, Lesley now leads the technical mentorship of her junior colleagues and plays a critical role in BENCH’s standards and training programs. We’re grateful for Lesley’s genial nature and her warmth and humour that can brighten anyone's day, and for her continued commitment to BENCH, and we are delighted to recognize her as the leader that she has become.

11/17/2025

Please join us in congratulating Valerie Manica on her appointment as Associate with BENCH in recognition of her outstanding contributions, dedication and leadership within our team. Valerie’s calm presence, her thoughtful and principled approach to everything she does, and focus on rigour and process make her a superlative mentor and role model. We extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation for her continued commitment to excellence, and look forward to her ongoing success and the valuable insights she will bring to her new role.

09/29/2025

DeHart Community Park opened to the public in May of this year, and has become a bustling third place, buzzing with life and energy.

Earlier this week, the park won an Energy & Climate Action award from the Community Energy Association at the Union of BC Municipalities conference in Victoria, for its focus on achieving embodied and operational carbon neutrality.

This project is the result of the collaboration and contributions of so many people, including - and definitely not limited to - thoughtful and ambitious leadership of City of Kelowna staff, incredibly generous and gracious guidance from syilx knowledge holders and educators, wonderfully open-minded, skilled and creative consulting and construction teams, and so many freehearted community groups and individuals.

Everyone who touched the project had an influence on it in some way, and the park wouldn't have turned out as it did without their involvement. We are so grateful for the many relationships that have been built and strengthened through the process of working together. ❤️

05/09/2024

We are delighted to share the news that BENCH has received a 2024 CSLA Award of Excellence for Phantom Creek Estates Winery. Located on the Black Sage BENCH in Oliver, BC, the project integrates the principles of biodynamic agriculture into the landscape design of the winery’s substantial hospitality program - including a tasting room and education centre, farm-to-table restaurant, amphitheatre, demonstration garden and vineyard, and various outdoor gathering spaces.

Phantom Creek presents winery visitors with a landscape aesthetic that is different from what they are accustomed: one in which imperfection is not just tolerated but embraced, and non-human species – from soil microbes to hover flies to osprey to wild horses - are viewed as essential collaborators. The project applies the wholistic, closed-loop approach of biodynamic farming to a hospitality landscape, yielding unique and fruitful results – a type of ornamental landscape suited to thrive one of Canada’s most arid regions, and lessons for our team that have informed the incorporation of such regenerative concepts into subsequent projects.

We had the opportunity to collaborate with many wonderful partners on this project, and are honoured to have our work recognized by the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, and to be amongst such good company on the list of 2024 award nominees, who are doing inspiring, ambitious work across the continent. To read about all of this year's awards, visit https://www.csla-aapc.ca/awards/2024-awards-excellence.

Photos: Ben Walker, MBCSLA

05/02/2024

Has anyone else noticed that the arrowleaf balsamroot in the Okanagan seem particularly floriferous this year? They were nearly in peak bloom a couple of weeks ago when photographed the Km 0 trailhead at n̓kək̓m̓apl̓qs project and they're still going strong.

04/25/2024

Designed in 2020 and built in 2021, Mission Creek East Park playground is a space for active, open-ended play. It comprises a circuit of custom natural play features made of local fir and cottonwood, which can be used in diverse ways. Features are simultaneously accessible to the very youngest of users and challenging to the most advanced.

06/19/2023

Our inclusivity-focused design at Strathcona Park is beginning to take shape! Find more details at the link below, and check out the new play structure the next time you're in the South Pandosy neighbourhood.

Strathcona Beach Park has a new play structure designed to foster inclusion, wellbeing, and active play for individuals of all ages and abilities.

04/28/2023

Thank you to all of those who attended our walkshops related to the Mill Creek Linear Park Master Plan project last week! These sessions were held at three distinct locations (Burne Avenue, Lindahl Street and Marshall Street) along the corridor to engage and inform the community about the project and experience the unique qualities of the creek. There was also an opportunity to identify opportunities and concerns and provide feedback on park values, design strategies, features and amenities that will guide the design of Mill Creek Linear Park.

For more details and to stay up-to-date on this project, visit the Mill Creek Linear Park page through Get Involved Kelowna at https://getinvolved.kelowna.ca/mill-creek-linear-park.

03/20/2023

Thank you to everyone who visited the DeHart Community Park open house last week! We had a great turnout and really enjoyed speaking with the community about their feedback.

There’s still time to help form the final design of DeHart Community Park - head over to https://getinvolved.kelowna.ca/dehartpark and have your say by participating in the online survey by April 2nd, 2023.