Stillwater, MN
Phase I: Complete
Phase II: In progress
Various Architects
Travis Van Liere Studio
ASLA MN Honor Award: Guidelines 2019

Situated amidst rolling hills, gentle valleys, and quiet ponds shaded by ancient heritage trees, White Oaks Savanna is a beautiful, architecturally-driven community developed in collaboration with the City of Grant, Brown’s Creek Watershed District, and Washington Country. Ideally located within easy driving distance of Stillwater and downtown St. Paul and Minneapolis, White Oaks Savanna offers an incomparable spirit of place.

Historic homesteads were primarily laid out according to function. They were often arranged in a square, with an open courtyard in the middle. Living quarters, barns, animal stalls, spaces for equipment repair, and other structures formed the outside edges of the courtyard. The front gate opened to the village street. Most homesteads also included a small vegetable garden nearby along with some fruit-bearing trees. 

To preserve the agrarian character of the existing landscape, the White Oaks Savanna master plan applies the conceptual framework of historic homesteads to both the scale of the individual lot and as well as to the entire site. At the site scale, the master plan reflects the careful analysis of the landscape function. Buffers between agricultural and drainage elements along with functional stormwater drainage between park and shared spaces were all considered.