Scott Martin, CEO of Fort Monroe Authority, spoke on the Fort Monroe Landscape Action Plan on March 18, 2026, including ways we can protect the natural environment of Fort Monroe and showcase its beauty for visitors.
The design firm Hargreaves Jones has been selected to begin a plan for the next era of Fort Monroe. The design will address how the rich history of Fort Monroe will be preserved and how new activities can interact with historical spaces. This includes business development, adoptive reuse of historical buildings, nature trails, tree plantings, and shoreline resilience. The firm will engage with the community and stakeholders to shape the plan and will incorporate environmental strategies for natural systems to thrive in a “green oasis.”
Hargreaves Jones is a famous landscape architecture firm that designed Crescent Park in New Orleans, Queen Elizabeth Park in London, the Riverfront in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the Sydney Olympic Games. They will take input from the public over about a 6 month period, and their plan should be completed by November 2026. We would like Governor Spanberger to sign off on the landscape action plan by the end of the year. This plan will shape the future of Fort Monroe for the next 50 years.
The plan will use 10 public landscape principles to guide it:
- Honor the Genius of Place
- Lift the Land’s Sacredness
- Design for Thriving People
- Add Daily Ecological Moments
- Create Joy Intentionally
- Privilege the Pedestrian
- Center Design in Human Behavior
- The Older the Vacant Building, the Newer the Ideas Must Be For It
- Create Room for New Histories
- Sustainability is Design
Because of its rich cultural and ecological background and resources, we think Fort Monroe has a strong capacity to serve the public as an environmental and historical beacon to shine a light on Hampton Roads and Virginia.