We favor a rich, contemporary landscape design style that transforms landscape elements into functional art. If you browse our portfolio, you’ll see how we strive to make each design artistic yet functional, each landscape custom tailored to the needs of the client. You'll also see that no two designs are alike.

Our design process

Design is a process that requires feedback between the designer and the client. Each successive design concept moves toward a better solution as it refines what should be included, its placement and how it should look. We build feedback into our approach, so you’re involved in the process all the way.

Both our principals have training in art, and even exhibit their works in galleries from time to time. They use this artistic background to conceive fun and interesting landscapes and apply illustration techniques to clearly communicate design ideas. We're one of the few firms in the Sacramento area using three dimensional computer modeling to illustrate and virtually tour new projects.

Sketching by hand forms the basis for our initial designs. Drawing by hand is faster and easier for developing initial ideas than any computerized process.

Once we've arrived at a design, we scan it into the computer and apply state of the art three dimensional modeling to visualize the new project, complete with shadows specific to the project location.

When we've illustrated the new design concept (or concepts) in plan view and with perspective drawings, we meet with you to present the new landscape and then again to brainstorm the final design based on your feedback. Following this meeting, we transfer the finalized design to the computer for final refinement, then prepare construction drawings that will be used to build the new landscape.

Education & educating

Both principals have masters degrees in landscape architecture from Cal Poly, Pomona and are licensed landscape architects in the state of California. In addition to these degrees, one partner has a bachelors degree in landscape architecture from ESAJ in Paris, France. The other has a degree in environmental studies from UC Santa Cruz. As far as we know, we’re the only Sacramento area landscape design team with education, training and experience in France.

We’ve lectured at UC Davis in the landscape architecture department and continue to speak about landscape architecture and about new ideas in design.

Sustainable Design

Our education at Cal Poly, Pomona stressed regenerative and sustainable design principles, and we strive to apply them as much as possible in our work. You can read more about sustainable design and our approach to this goal here.

Involvement in the profession & the community

We’re involved in the profession of landscape architecture in other ways, too. Annette served on the chapter’s board of directors. Mike served as chapter president from 2006-2007.

Mike was one of three landscape architects on the board of the California Central Valley Horticultural Foundation, a group of people hoping to establish a world class botanic garden in the Sacramento region. One of the main assets of the garden will be a series of gardens illustrating the multitude of cultures that make up the California landscape.

Annette volunteers at the gardens at the American River Water Education Center (ARWEC) in Folsom. The center focuses on water education and best landscaping practices for conserving water. Both principals participate in the center’s lecture program as lecturing landscape architects and designers.

Both principals participate in community charrettes, where design professionals team up with city or county officials and citizens to dream up designs for local communities.

A global approach

We bring our extensive international experience to every project we undertake. With computer aided design and the Internet, we can discuss design ideas virtually anywhere. Our farthest project so far was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - but we frequently design landscapes as far away as Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo.

Technology

Our approach uses a mixture of hand sketching and computer applications, applying the most efficient workflow possible for producing clearly illustrated, easy to read sketches and plans. Once we've created a design, we often model a new project in three dimensions so we can virtually tour the new project before it's built and can create animated walk-throughs of the project. We often sketch out ideas during meetings, too.

All our presentation sheets and plans are computer based. Concept drawings typically are hand drawn, scanned into the computer, and combined with text to create 24" x 36" displays depicting the proposed concept. With this process, we can easily make multiple copies or convert the drawings to pdf files and send them via the Internet. Working drawings are done using a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) program for optimal accuracy and ease of transmission - and can also be converted to Acrobat files when anyone wants an electronic copy of their plans.

We make extensive use of digital photography to document the evolution of each project as it moves toward completion. Digital images combined with QuickTime VR let us virtually visit the site as often as we wish during the design process.

If you want fresh, contemporary design ideas with an international flair, please contact us!