History
A Collaborative History:
Over 50 Years of Creating Spaces Together
The Collaborative’s story began in 1971, when a casual conversation between landscape architect Bob Mortensen and architect Tom Schauder sparked an ambitious idea: What if architecture, landscape and engineering could all come together under one roof?
Joined by a third partner with a structural engineering firm, they set out to blur disciplinary boundaries and build a practice defined not by hierarchy, but by shared leadership and collective creativity. On January 1, 1973, The Collaborative was born with eight principals and a guiding belief that the best ideas emerge when people design together.
From the start, listening was our lead design tool. Teams worked across disciplines with clients and communities to create solutions tailored to people and place. That ethos of partnership extended to nationally recognized collaborators and remains central to the firm’s identity today.
Our early work centered on award-winning resort projects, including Florida’s Innisbrook and Saddlebrook resorts and Colorado’s Tamarron Resort, which earned our first national award from the American Society of Landscape Architects. By the 1980s — with the arrival of our first personal computer, fax machine, and CADD station — our practice had expanded into education, healthcare, civic, corporate and nonprofit sectors.
The 1990s marked a focus on K–12 and higher education, including projects at Miami, Wittenberg and Bowling Green State universities. Over time, we developed deep expertise and leadership in campus master planning and facilities, completing more than 750 major projects on 93 campuses nationwide.
At the turn of the 21st century, we were named an AIA Ohio Gold Medal Firm, the organization’s highest honor. In the years that followed, we expanded our reach, opening offices in Ann Arbor (2014) and Columbus (2024). In 2025, Acock Associates Architects, founded by esteemed AIA College of Fellows member George Acock, joined our practice, further strengthening our expertise and presence in central Ohio.
The Collaborative’s headquarters and roots remain in Toledo, where our landmark projects — including Fifth Third Field, the Huntington Center, and the Glass City Center — have reshaped the city’s skyline.
Through thousands of projects, dozens of principal leaders and best-in-class professionals, one thing has remained constant: Collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. From concept to completion, The Collaborative delivers design that is strategic, visionary and always created together.