1993
On January 22, a 29 year old Norm traveled to Lansing, MI and filed incorporation papers for The Greenway Collaborative, Inc. The impetus was to combine his love of bicycling with his landscape architecture skills. He also thought this would be a way to simplify his career by focusing on one thing. Well the simplify his life part did not quite work out as planned, but he still loves what he does.
1993
Started work on Southeast Michigan Greenways for the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, Michigan Chapter, which has now become the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance. Thus begun work with our longest running client and our favorite nonprofit.
1993
1994
After nearly two years working out of the basement of his home, Norm got a real office in Nickels Arcade. The Greenway Collaborative, Inc. has been located in three different offices in the Arcade over the years.
1994
Mike Savitski, a friend of Norm’s from high school, designed our leaf logo. This was the first project of his new firm Savitski Design.
1994
1995
Roger Storm joined The Greenway Collaborative after stepping down as the first director of Rails-to-Trails Conservancy’s Michigan Chapter. Roger was instrumental in the development of the MDOT Bicycle Facility Map Prototype and Feasibility Study and Southeast Michigan Greenways demonstration projects. Roger coined the term “Detroit’s New Front Porch” when working on the Southwest Detroit Riverfront.
1997
Prepared our first bicycle map of sorts. It was a prototype for MDOT’s regional bicycle maps. In later years we went on to create two of the actual maps. The other maps where done by regional governments using the prototype model.
1997
1998
Working as a sub-consultant to Bicycle’s Inc., The Greenway Collaborative, Inc. started work on our first Non-motorized Transportation Plan for The City of Kalamazoo.
1998
Still in the early days of GIS, The Greenway Collaborative, Inc. combined data from the US and Canada to create the first map of the Detroit River documenting all of the parks on both sides of the river.
1998
1999
Norm gave a presentation to the Community Foundation of Southeast Michigan in which he proposed a new greenways fund that would leverage existing state and federal funding sources, address key funding gaps, provide technical assistance and planning assistance. Many white paper and meetings later the GreenWays Initiative was born in 2001 which has delivered over 25 million dollars to greenway projects in southeast Michigan.
2000
Launched the Ohio Greenways website which allowed users to explore interactive maps of all of Ohio’s existing and planned greenways.
2000
2001
Norm returned to his alma mater, Michigan State University, this time as a consultant for the Red Cedar Greenway. The plan proposed the first separated pedestrian and bicycle trail in the State of Michigan and a redesign for the iconic “Sparty” intersection.
2002
Clea Rome joined The Greenway Collaborative after graduating from U of M, SNRE Landscape Architecture’s graduate program. Clea spent two years with the firm before moving to Washington State with her husband. Clea was instrumental in the Clinton River Trail Master Plan and Meridian Township Greenways Plan.
2002
2003
Prepared the Master Plan for the Clinton River Trail. In the early 70’s Norm lived 1/4 mile from this trail and spend a good portion of his summers trespassing on the railroad. He was pleased to see that today’s kids can now travel the same route without breaking the law.
2004
As part of the Meridian Township Greenway Plan, The Greenway Collaborative Inc. developed a detailed ecological model that served as the basis for the Township’s open space plan.
2004
2004
As a subconsultant to The Corridino Group, we prepared the Non-motorized section for the Northeast Ann Arbor Transportation Plan. This plan laid the groundwork for the Ann Arbor Non-motorized Transportation Plan.
2004
Melissa Pelkey joined The Greenway Collaborative as a part-time intern while finishing her masters degree at University of Michigan. She then stayed on through the summer full time working on the Ann Arbor Non-motorized Plan before moving to San Francisco with her significant other (to whom she later married).
2004
2004
Rob Pulcipher joined The Greenway Collaborative. Rob was instrumental with the development of the Ann Arbor Non-motorized Transportation Plan for which we were the prime consultants.
2006
Wrapped up the planning on the Ann Arbor Non-motorized Transportation Plan, our first comprehensive non-motorized transportation plan for which we were the prime consultant. Multi-modal transportation planning now comprises the majority of our work.
2006
2006
Wrapped up the planning on the Ann Arbor Non-motorized Transportation Plan, our first comprehensive non-motorized transportation plan for which we were the prime consultant. Multi-modal transportation planning now comprises the majority of our work.
2006
Emily Marshall Duchon joined the Greenway Collaborative after graduating from U of M, SNRE Landscape Architecture’s graduate program. Emily was instrumental in the Library Lane Conceptual Plan, the Jackson Public Schools Transportation Project and a number of our bike map projects. She was with us two years before moving to Los Angeles (at this point Norm was getting a complex about loosing new hires to the west coast).
2006
2007
Norm served as the President of the Michigan Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
2007
Completed the Michigan State University Bicycle Plan, our first campus bicycle plan. MSU now has around 38 miles of bike lanes.
2007
2007
Used Google Maps for the first time to create interactive maps for the St Clair Trails and Routes Action Plan.
2008
Carolyn Prudhomme joined The Greenway Collaborative, Inc. after graduating from MSU’s Landscape Architecture program and has been our longest serving employee. She quickly became an expert transportation planner and GIS wiz. She has been instrumental in every project since.
2008
2009
The MDOT University Region Road and Trail Bicycle Guide receives an Honorable Mention in the Transportation Publication Category at the AASHTO GIS Transportation Symposium.
2010
We provided our multi-modal GIS development toolkit to The City of Grand Rapids so that they could do much of the work in-house. We used their work in 2011 to prepare the Grand Rapids Bike Plan.
2010
2010
The Metro Region Road and Trail Bicycle Guide received 1st Place in the category of Most Effective Cartography at the AASHTO GIS Transportation Symposium.
2011
Helped prepare the training modules for Michigan’s Complete Street Institute.
2011
2011
When asked to help MTGA brand a trail across lower Michigan, we over reached our mandate and proposed a system of five cross state trails named The Great Lake-to-Lake Trails. Carolyn developed the logo for the trail system in about 1 hour before one of our meetings.
2011
The Michigan Association of Planning awarded the City of Novi Non-motorized Master Plan a Planning Excellence Award for Best Practices.
2011
2012
The Greenway Collaborative gives a presentation on Bike Network Planning at the ProWalk/ProBike/ProPlace Conference in Long Beach, California.
2013
The City of Clawson Downtown Bicycle & Pedestrian Plan wins award for Outstanding Downtown Planning Effort by Main Street Oakland County (MSOC)
2013
2013
Developed the Huron River Water Trail Website that included numerous interactive maps allowing paddlers to explore potential trips.
2014
Ferndale Moves! is the first fully web-based plan.
2014
2015
Launched www.WalkBike.Info- Your hyperlocal one stop shop for people who walk and bike
2015
Norm joined the Board of Directors for the League of Michigan Bicyclists
2015
2017
The Greenway Collaborative, Inc. was named Outstanding Firm of the Year at Michigan ASLA’s Annual Meeting on September 28, 2017 in Detroit
2018
The Greenway Collaborative celebrates it’s 25 year anniversary!
2018
