TSW | Planners | Architects | Landscape Architects, celebrating over 25 years, is a full-service  design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. With approximately 30 full-time employees, our small office size allows our principals to be hands-on in every aspect of a project and allows for more multidisciplinary collaboration. TSW works throughout the Southeast and in the Caribbean on projects, including downtown master plans, comprehensive plans, corridor studies, coding and guidelines, mixed-use developments, civic and community buildings, ecclesiastical, multifamily residential, townhouses, park and recreation facilities, and streetscapes.

TSW is a leader in creating designs that embody the principles of livable communities—walkability, sense of place, public spaces, human-scaled buildings, and connectivity. In recent years we have been fortunate to take these ideas from concept to reality in a range of diverse places from Atlanta, Georgia, to Fayetteville, Arkansas. We have been involved in all stages of placemaking, including outreach, visioning, coding, public and private planning, architecture, and streetscape design.

Our multidisciplinary approach goes beyond planning and design to incorporate real-world knowledge of sustainability, user experience, development and retail economics, and feasibility. Implementation is a key focus of all of TSW’s plans and we are especially proud of our implemented and built work. In addition, meaningful stakeholder involvement allows us to incorporate the aspirations of our client and other stakeholders and build on local and/or regional identity to establish a market niche and a strong sense of place.

As a full-service design firm, we are able to take a project from master planning to construction documents and through all of the critical steps in between, including community engagement, permitting, and construction administration. We are not only committed to creative, innovative, and sustainable designs but also think in terms of implementation and the actual built product, which ensures an efficient overall process.

Brief History
Tunnell-Spangler & Associates was founded in 1990 by partners William T. Tunnell and Jerry W. Spangler in Atlanta, Georgia. The firm’s name was changed to Tunnell-Spangler-Walsh & Associates in September of 2002 when Principal Thomas H. Walsh became a partner in the firm and was shortened to TSW in 2013.

Planning Studio Overview
TSW’s Planning Studio focuses on public and private sector projects that create innovative, distinctive, and market-driven communities. We listen carefully to our clients’ objectives and translate them into a concise development strategy. We also know how and when to include others, such as stakeholders and specialized consultants, in the planning process to resolve issues and achieve consensus.

TSW’s planning work is grounded in our firm’s capabilities in architecture and landscape architecture. The combinations of these disciplines in our office ensure success from concept through construction documentation and implementation.

Architecture Studio Overview
TSW’s Architecture Studio has been creating distinctive community architecture for residential and mixed-use developments throughout the eastern United States for over two decades. With a focus on buildings that animate a community, we pro¬vide contemporary and traditional designs for mixed-use projects, multifamily, civic structures, community buildings, and single-family.

Our designs reinforce the urban foundations of their settings while establishing important architectural precedents. Careful attention is given to each building’s visual character, through designs based on regional and local architectural traditions.

Landscape Architecture Studio Overview
TSW’s Landscape Architecture Studio specializes in enhancing the character, appearance, and functionality of the natural environment by determining how to best incorporate man-made features. TSW uses an interactive design approach, encouraging the client, planner, architect, engineer, and contractor to collaborate with the landscape architect to ensure that all disciplines understand and contribute to the development concept. Sustainability, safety, and user experience are our top priorities with all of our landscape architecture projects.

Commitment to Sustainability
Sustainability is integral to our planning and design process. As designers, we are sensitive to the environment and community, understanding the land and context to maximize opportunities when practical. Our process is sensitive to social issues, polling the community to respond to their needs and integrating a variety of accessible spaces and programming for people of all ages, genders, and socio-economic classes. We also focus on sustainable operations by specifying durable, local materials that are readily available, reducing irrigation with native plants, treating stormwater run-off with rain gardens and bioswales, and using LEDs to reduce maintenance costs. Our approach is to reduce energy use and long term cost.

Community Engagement
TSW believes that the most successful plans and designs are grounded in meaningful community outreach and effective listening. Whether we are working with a local government, neighborhood organization, or private developer, we believe that engaging stakeholders and community members in the planning and design process result in a better outcome for everyone.

In the past five years, our staff has conducted over 200 workshops in more than 50 cities and counties. This gives us a deep respect for the fact there is no one size fits all approach to engagement, and that every effort must be tailored to the needs of a specific place. We have developed a toolbox of methods that are effective in most communities, including customized charrettes and workshops, online surveys, intercept surveys, open houses, walking and biking tours, and interactive websites, in addition to traditional public meetings and stakeholder interviews.

Graphics to Communicate Vision
TSW strongly believes in the power of marketing and graphic techniques to convey concepts, achieve consensus, and get people excited about ideas as part of the public engagement effort in the planning and design process. We employ a variety of these techniques as part of every project, including perspective renderings, AutoCAD street, and building sections, SketchUp 3D modeling, ArcGIS mapping, Revit and Lumion computer-generated renderings, Photoshop before and after renderings, PowerPoint presentations, and visual preference and community surveys.