Keith Simpson’s Proposal “Saving 1913” Library Plan

To P&Z:

Keith Simpson is New Canaan’s own landscape architect, who has been improving New Canaan, and elsewhere, for many decades.

Coming to New Canaan from the University of Massachusetts in 1976, and opening his award-winning office here almost 40 years ago, he has been involved in the site planning of several hundred projects in New England, New York and beyond. His work has transformed thousands of acres, both locally and elsewhere, and on many major campuses including that of the Choate School. His work is in evidence here in New Canaan, including at Town Hall, Waveny, Mead and Kiwanis parks, the Lapham Center, many of the schools in town, the Bristow Bird Sanctuary, the New Canaan Museum and Historical Society and on innumerable private properties.

In 1992, he prepared a study for our downtown, recommending the brick sidewalks and wider pedestrian paving and granite curbs, lower lighting, better signage, seating, planting and the municipal clock. Working with successive administrations, the implementation of those recommendations has raised property values and transformed the look of downtown. Also, the widening out of the Forest Street sidewalk was his idea, and he and Tom O’Dea changed the Town Charter to allow the previously prohibited, but now popular, outdoor dining for restaurants.

When elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2007, the president of the Connecticut landscape architects said, “Keith has put his stamp of creative excellence on landscapes across the country, and abroad. His professional accomplishments make him very deserving of this honor”.

He is a past President, and Trustee, for Connecticut’s landscape architects and he was a founding member of the Merritt Parkway Conservancy and its vice chairman for its first ten years. He is a past president of both the Rotary and Lions Clubs and was the town’s last representative to the Southwestern Regional Planning Agency. He was a member of the Implementation Committee for the town’s Plan of Conservation and Development.

Mr. Simpson’s qualifications justify serious consideration be given to any alternative that he may put forward.

Sincerely,

Siobhan Sack