The Landscape Architect

The landscape architect is in charge of site design and is the one person, more than any other that will set the property’s first impression. When you think landscape architect, think curb appeal. Look to a landscape architect for regional neighbourhood context design, site planning and furnishings, and high impact features with low maintenance. You want a design that enhances the overall quality of the building or development and mixes well with the environment.

Here is what I mean. I recently completed a facelift for a twenty year old office building. The owner wanted to sell and felt that a fresh look to the building would speed up the process. Without a huge budget, we knew we had to rely on colour and landscaping to do the trick. We selected exterior paint colours to work with the existing natural stone and brought in a landscape architect to accentuate the building’s best attributes. He suggested we clean up the entry by reducing the number of overgrown plants, replacing them with smaller, easily maintained varieties. This gave the building a cleaner aesthetic. He also worked to accentuate the main entries of the building, leading tenants and visitors to the entrances with ease.

Modern architecture and life style requirements recognise the importance of integrating the garden and landscape into the overall concept and design of your building. It should all flow together to create a fully functional living and recreational space which has many ‘green’ and sustainable attributes, maximising  the use of light and sun power and the use of water filtration systems and insulation to cut down on the use of these valuable and costly resources.