Spokane is ready for a new kind of landscape:
Garden focused, environment conscious, regionally expressive, life enhancing!
In my residential Spokane landscape architecture practice, the design process starts with the client. I’ve been asked many times ‘What is your garden style?’ or “What is your favorite plant?”. Of course I have my favorites, but ascertaining the wishes and dreams of my clients is the foundation for each design I prepare. I strive to create a landscape that reflects the uniqueness and personality of its owners. The raw materials of site, including topography, structures, sun and wind, soil, established plants, water availability – are equally important factors, and in combination with owner’s wishes make for infinite creative outcomes.
I believe the design process at its best is a collaborative exploration of ideas and possibilities. A good design is less a product and more a distillation and focusing of all the environmental and human directives for each project. In the most successful landscapes this process continues after the plans are drawn and is refined by designer, owner and
contractor during construction. The design intent, safe and well-functioning circulation and activity areas, quality workmanship, beautiful details all influence the finished landscape. An up-front investment in design is usually a fraction of total project cost and helps ensure a tailored, functional and sustainable end result.
One key perspective I bring to my practice is my passion for gardens. I love the outdoor theater – the variation of plant life, the changing seasons, the growth and maturing of a garden –
and I spend most of my free time in my own garden. I encourage my design clients to become involved in their gardens, whether in choosing plants, growing food, composting or just spending time reveling in their gardens. Spokane is an ideal climate for enjoying the outdoors. Our dry, warm summers are hospitable and our long summer days luxurious. We are able to grow an immense variety of plants – exquisite evergreens, flowering trees, endless perennials, succulents and desert plants and even coastal-loving rhododendrons and ferns. One of my favorite books written by Lauren Springer and her husband David Ogden Plant Driven Design echoes my feelings about the importance of plants in creating a meaningful garden. Plants are central to an evocative landscape and are carefully chosen and featured in my garden designs.
The concern for environmental health is mainstream stuff these days and is often expressed in a somewhat vague, one word expression ‘GREEN’. Designing and building a landscape provides a spectacular opportunity to deconstruct the concept of ‘GREEN’ and rebuild it into an interactive, living, one-of-a-kind place. These are some of the questions that need to be asked in creating an environmentally conscious landscape;
What is our understanding and desire for personal and environmental health?
Is there potential for growth and new vision in the design process?
What site resources can be integrated into the design?
What materials will use minimum resources and provide maximum durability?
What plant communities will thrive on this site, and provide enjoyment with minimum care?
This new approach to landscape design I’d summarize as life enhancing. Its about more than adding an outdoor kitchen to your backyard or ‘shrubbing-up’ the spaces around the lawn. A well designed landscape adds quality of life – comfort, beauty, respite, creative inspiration, health and connection – for people and the environment.
Are you ready for a new kind of landscape design?
