What Wenk Associates does

Wenk Associates, Inc. is a privately held landscape architecture firm founded in 1982 by Bill Wenk and headquartered at 1130 31st Street, Denver, Colorado. The firm provides professional landscape architecture, urban design, and site planning services across six practice areas: parks, urban design, water resources, green infrastructure, campus planning, and community engagement. Its core technical differentiator is a four-decade proprietary methodology that treats urban stormwater infrastructure as a design resource rather than a purely functional utility, codified in the 2025 publication 'Working Water: Reinventing the Storm Drain.' The River Mile project is the first riverine project nationally to achieve WEDG (Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines) Verification under Version 3.0, and the firm won a 2009 ASLA National Honor Award for the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan.

Wenk serves four primary customer segments: government and municipal agencies (City and County of Denver, Salt Lake City Corporation, City of Milwaukee, Town of Berthoud, Lowry Redevelopment Authority); private developers and real estate (Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, McWhinney); educational institutions (CU Anschutz, Auraria, Fort Lewis College); and resort/hospitality operators (Alterra Mountain Company). The firm operates from a single Denver office with a team of approximately 19 professionals and executes projects across at least nine U.S. states, with Colorado as the primary market. In 2020, founding principal Bill Wenk retired and Nicole Horst (President) and Greg Dorolek (Vice-President) assumed full ownership; in 2024 the firm was certified as a Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE), Small Business Enterprise (SBE), and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) through Denver's DSBO.

The business model is fee-for-service professional services: revenue is generated through project-based engagements covering master planning, schematic design, design development, and construction documentation. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The firm acquires work through direct business development, competitive proposals for municipal RFPs, repeat client engagements, and partnerships with architecture, engineering, and transportation planning firms. Distribution is direct-to-client with no intermediary channel structure, and marketing is conducted through the firm website, social media (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook), industry award submissions (ASLA, AIA, ULI), and professional conference participation. No external funding has been raised, and the firm has no parent company, subsidiaries, or disclosed revenue figures.

Name

Wenk Associates

Legal name

Wenk Associates, Inc.

Website

https://wenkla.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Wenk Associates is a Denver-based landscape architecture and urban design firm founded in 1982, serving government, private developer, institutional, and resort clients across the Mountain West with proprietary stormwater-as-resource design methodology and approximately 19 professionals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Denver

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Landscape Architecture Services: Professional services revenue generated through landscape architecture and urban design project engagements with public agencies, private developers, and institutional clients. Projects span master planning, schematic design, design development, and construction documentation phases.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Wenk Associates is a landscape architecture firm delivering professional design services across six practice areas: parks design, urban design, water resource planning, green infrastructure design, campus planning, and community engagement. The firm works with public agencies, private developers, and institutional clients on projects spanning master planning, schematic design, design development, and construction documentation, with a signature approach of treating stormwater as a resource and integrating urban and natural systems.

Product overview

Wenk Associates is a landscape architecture firm offering professional design services across six practice areas: Parks, Urban Design, Water Resources, Green Infrastructure, Campus Planning, and Community Engagement. The firm provides end-to-end landscape architecture services from research and conceptual planning through design development and construction documentation. Their portfolio includes a publication, 'Working Water: Reinventing the Storm Drain,' which serves as a practice-based resource for sustainable stormwater infrastructure. Major project types span community parks (Waggener Farm Park, Confluence Park), urban redevelopment (TAXI, Arkins Park, River Mile), waterway restoration (Steamboat Burgess Creek, Menomonee River Valley), campus landscapes (CU Boulder, Auraria), and large-scale green infrastructure (Baseline Development, Salt Lake City Green Loop). The firm holds MWBE, SBE, and DBE certifications through Denver's DSBO.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Parks Design Services Landscape architecture and design services for parks and open spaces, including master planning, schematic design, design development, and construction documentation for community parks, recreation centers, and public green spaces. Served municipal and institutional clients.
• Urban Design Services Urban design and planning services for urban environments including streetscapes, plazas, mixed-use developments, and urban redevelopment projects that integrate public spaces with urban infrastructure.
• Water Resource Planning Specialized water management and river restoration services including creek daylighting, river corridor restoration, stormwater management as a resource, and waterfront design utilizing green infrastructure approaches.
• Green Infrastructure Design Design services for green infrastructure systems including green roofs, stormwater gardens, water quality areas, pollinator habitats, and sustainable landscape systems that integrate ecological functions with built environments.
• Campus Planning Landscape architecture services for higher education and institutional campuses including academic buildings, student unions, recreation facilities, and campus-wide open space planning and design.
• Community Engagement Public engagement and community consultation services including stakeholder workshops, public meetings, cultural audits, and collaborative design processes that involve communities in shaping their built environments.
• Working Water: Reinventing the Storm Drain A three-part book including teaching tools for students and public officials, project examples demonstrating sustainable stormwater solutions, and a resource guide for implementing large-scale systems, authored by Bill Wenk and the firm.

Quantifiable outcome

• The River Mile: South Platte River Restoration is the first riverine project to achieve WEDG Verification and fifteenth project nationally to meet WEDG's gold standard.
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers8 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Alta Planning + DesigncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Multimodal transportation consultant on the Salt Lake City Green Loop project, responsible for transportation planning elements of the 5.5-mile linear green space development in downtown Salt Lake City.
• Fehr & PeerscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Transportation planning consultant on the Salt Lake City Green Loop project, providing technical advisory team collaboration for multimodal transportation elements.
• David Evans AssociatescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Community engagement consultant on the Salt Lake City Green Loop project, facilitating public outreach and community input processes.
• Calibre EngineeringcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Lead consultant and civil engineering partner on the River Mile Redevelopment project, handling site, civil engineering, and entitlements for the 62-acre redevelopment along the South Platte River.
• Tres BirdscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020Architecture and building demolition partner for Arkins Park (RiNo ArtPark), providing architectural services, building repurposing design, and custom furniture design for the 3.5-acre adaptive reuse park project.
• Butterfly PavilioncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017Collaborated on the Baseline Development project to create District Pollinator Guidelines for landscape design, installation, maintenance, and monitoring. Guidelines are the first of their kind in the country for large-scale developments, requiring designing for and actively managing invertebrates for ecosystem health.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• SWA Group: Internationally recognized landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm with strong waterfront, park, and urban redevelopment portfolio. Directly comparable practice areas including green infrastructure and stormwater design.
• LandDesign: National landscape architecture, civil engineering, and urban design firm with strong public-sector and private developer client base. Comparable in service mix and project types including parks, campuses, and mixed-use developments.
• OLIN: Philadelphia-based landscape architecture, urban design, and planning firm known for signature park and waterfront projects. Comparable in practice breadth, project scale, and design-led approach to public realm work.
• Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates (MVVA): Brooklyn-based landscape architecture firm known for signature parks (Brooklyn Bridge Park) and waterfront master plans. Comparable in practice areas, project scale, and design-led differentiation.
• Hargreaves Associates: San Francisco-based landscape architecture firm with deep expertise in waterfronts, parks, and sustainable urban design. Comparable in practice focus and project portfolio, particularly on river restoration and waterfronts.
• Design Workshop: Colorado-based landscape architecture, planning, and urban design firm with strong mountain-west municipal client base. Highly comparable to Wenk in size, services, regional focus, and emphasis on sustainability and river restoration.
• OJB Landscape Architecture: National landscape architecture firm with strong urban design, parks, and campus portfolio. Comparable in mid-sized practice serving municipal, institutional, and private developer clients.
• James Corner Field Operations: New York-based landscape architecture and urban design firm behind the High Line and other transformative waterfront/park projects. Comparable in specialization on urban regeneration, waterfronts, and large-scale public realm design.

Broad incumbents

• Stantec: Global engineering, architecture, and environmental services firm with significant landscape architecture practice. Competes for the same urban redevelopment, parks, and waterfront projects but as part of a much broader portfolio.
• Sasaki Associates: International interdisciplinary design firm spanning landscape architecture, urban planning, architecture, and engineering. Overlaps with Wenk on master planning, urban design, and campus work but operates at much larger scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/wenkassociates
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wenk-associates
• Instagraminstagram.com/wenkassociates

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Wenk Associates