Longtime landscape architect honored for years of commitment to Whitefish

A casual glance around Whitefish will give you views of tree-lined streets, flowing bike paths and green spaces and almost all of it originated with local landscape architect, Bruce Boody.

Landscape architecture involves the planning, design, management and nurturing of the built and natural environments. It’s a profession that, when done well, provides natural grace and beauty that can oftentimes go overlooked, but the Whitefish community recognized its most prolific landscape visionary earlier this month.

At the Whitefish City Council meeting on July 5, Mayor John Muhlfeld presented Boody with a Community Appreciation Award for his “decades of volunteer service and leadership to the betterment of the community of Whitefish.”

“Bruce, on behalf of the city council, city staff and your friends and colleagues, thank you so much for all you’ve done for our community.” Mulfeld continued, “We’re in a much better place than we were, given your efforts.”

Muhlfeld listed some of the boards Boody has volunteered on and worked for over the last 35 years, including the Pedestrian and Bike Path Advisory Committee and the Tree Advisory Committee.

Two longtime senior city staff members, engineer Karin Hilding and planner Wendy Compton-Ring, agree that Whitefish would not look the same if not for Boody. Both spoke of the value of his expansive knowledge and forward thinking, including his use of native and drought-tolerant plants years before that was generally accepted.

Some of his past projects include Depot Park, Armory Park, City Beach, the Downtown Master Plan, the Central Avenue rebuilding project and the majority of the bike paths in Whitefish. Yet, Boody is down-to-earth when it comes to his years of work on a myriad of public city spaces.

“I guess we’ve had a hand in quite a few of them,” he said. “Just had a real fortunate career here. It's been pretty fun.”

GROWING UP with two sisters and a brother in Minnesota, Boody had never heard of landscape architecture. But he knew he wanted to go to college and when he headed to the University of Minnesota, his parents told him to find something that he loves to do.

He said he would study in different places on campus. Often, he would study in the courtyard of the architecture building and one day he saw the sign in front of the building.

“It said Architecture and Landscape Architecture, and I was like, ’What is that?’” Boody recalls. “So I went and talked to the head of the department and he just piled me up with books; I'd go back and talk with him and after reading that stuff and looking at it, I (realized), I've been doing this my whole life!”

An inquisitive child, Boody says he must have driven his family nuts by asking why things were done the way they were. He’d ask why some things looked so nice and other things did not. His interest in the natural world and in site work was deep-seated.

“And then I found out you could work in that, and I was just like, (gasp) well obviously, what am I gonna do? Now I'm hooked,” he said. “It was my thing.”

While earning his degree in landscape architecture, Boody spent every summer working in Glacier National Park. After several summers hiking and working in the park, Boody felt he found his place, too.

“That was it, I just kept working in the park and trying to find a way to get here,” he said. “I found my community.”

He moved to Whitefish in 1975 and worked out of an office in Kalispell for the first couple of years.

“Then I got enough experience and took my tests and passed those,” he said, and added with a laugh, “Now, with the blinders still firmly in place, now is a good time to start my own business.”

Boody established his business, Bruce Boody Landscape Architect, Inc., in 1981 to “design spaces that promote health and well-being for the people who use them.” He sold the business last year but continues to be dedicated to the work he loves.

“For a long time it's been 70 hours a week and now I have toned that down. I rarely work over 50 hours a week now,” he said. “So I think I'm doing pretty good.”

WHITEFISH CUSTOM home builder Casey Malmquist has worked with Boody for 30 years and describes him as a consummate professional. They’ve worked together on public projects and on private builds.

“Bruce has been a part of virtually every project I've done in those 30 years and is, I believe, the secret sauce in that success,” Malmquist said. “He has a beautiful vision of the world that he shares with other people very effectively and is able to implement it as a result — an amazing gift.”

“From The Wave, to the ice rink, the library, to bike trails, it goes on and on. And Bruce has his fingerprints on every single one of those, and oftentimes at no charge,” Malmquist said. “He truly has the community at heart.”

One of his earliest projects is Whitefish’s popular Riverside Park with walking and biking paths, benches and bridges, sunshine and shade. It wasn’t always as lovely as it is today.

The grassy slope from the tennis courts to the river was, in 1985, a sheer drop off with a collection of old concrete and asphalt that had been dumped there for years. Boody’s vision transformed the site and the help of the community turned his plan to reality.

According to Boody, they obtained 40 to 50 cubic yards of fill from the sewer construction project and in two weekends the community sodded the whole thing.

“The community came out and brought their tractors and their little dozers and everything,” Boody recalled. “The city paid them something but it was pretty minimal. People came out and did all this work, planted the trees, laid the sod. Pretty amazing.”

While Boody sees the local community as amazing, his depth of knowledge about the community and his dedication to its enhancement could be described in the same way.

He says Whitefish is a community of activists who find a way to make things happen and credits John Kramer, previous city manager Ralph Friedman and Susan and Charlie Abel for their leadership and for helping convince people that parks are important.

“I just love landscape architecture. I think it's a great profession,” said Boody. “Then when you add on the bonus of being able to work on these public spaces and getting to see people using the trails, coming to the river, the lake. It’s a good thing for a community.”