Matt Fridell and Tanya Olson
Doing business in Custer
I like to live in the small town I grew up in . I think it would be so cool if I ever had grandkids or great-grandkids that could ride their bikes to the pool just like I did and my kids did . I hope kids still do that , and I think Custer is a town where they could .
~ Matt Fridell
TALLGRASS gives communities hometown treatment story by Nathan Steele
Custerites Matt Fridell and Tanya Olson have a passion for championing small , rural communities and helping them to unlock their full potential through design . With their firm , Tallgrass Landscape Architecture , the couple is working with the City of Custer on several projects . Perhaps most exciting are the designs for Harbach Park and a future Custer Community Center . Fridell is a Custer native , having grown up here and come back with Olson , who grew up in rural Minnesota , in a town even smaller than Custer . Now , they have lived here for more than 20 years and have become pillars of the community . Between the two of them , they ’ ve served on the Custer School Board , the Custer Area Economic Development Coorporation , the Custer Housing Commission , and the Custer Area Arts Council . That ’ s all in addition to starting and running their business .
Having grown up in small towns , and living in one now , Fridell and Olson appreciate the nuances of working in rural communities and have shaped their business to specialize in those types of places , especially in the mountain west . Not only do they work in Custer , but also in other communities in the Black Hills and beyond . Other notable work they have done is the design for the Dinosaur Park renovation in Rapid City and the David Street Station in Casper , Wyo . Last year , their work made the cover of Landscape Architecture Magazine , with an article about their work on Lead ’ s Manuel Brothers Park .
Many enjoy the finished products of their work as they enjoy a stroll down a city trail , take their kids to the local park or gather for an event in a public space they designed , but they may not realize hours and hours of brainstorming , planning , budgeting and community-discussion that happen before their work can come to fruition . And Tallgrass is there to help communities like Custer through those steps too .
“ We work in a lot of small towns and help them wrestle with these really difficult problems , like how do we define our identity ? How do we make a great place for families to live ? What can we afford ? How do we fund these things in the long-term ? How do we maintain them ? These aren ’ t easy answers . That ’ s why we ’ re there working on them ,” said Olson .
Often , small towns don ’ t have the budgets , resources or manpower to achieve its goals or live up to its potential , but a core value of Tallgrass is that rural places deserve good design just as much as busy metro centers .
“ We built our company around the idea that rural places need good design and we ’ re their creative partners . It ’ s really about recognizing and celebrating that rural communities can be great places to live ,” said Fridell .
“ Our firm is really about working with rural communities and helping them make decisions that positively impact their future ,” said Olson .
For their work in Custer , it ' s deeply personal . Of course , as residents they are impacted by their own designs and have sentimental ties to the properties they work with . For example , the Custer Community Center is on the site of the former elementary school and city pool that Fridell went to as a child and that their own children attended as
“ I like to live in the small town I grew up in . I think it would be so cool if I ever had grandkids or great-grandkids that could ride their bikes to the pool just like I did and my kids did . I hope kids still do that , and I think Custer is a town where they could ,” said Fridell .