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know what you're doing before you start
The main difference between hiring a landscape designer or landscape architect is that you can become more involved in the design process, since that is our specialty. Looking at presentation drawings allows you to better visualize what your landscape will look like before it's built.
make it yours
Each project is unique, designed according to your needs, your site and your style. We don't have a book where you choose a pre-set design that looks like hundreds of other people's.
comparable bids
If you're getting multiple bids - and you should - then each contractor is bidding from the same set of drawings. This lets you compare bids for the same scope, instead of trying to assess multiple contractors with multiple designs.
it can save you money
Typically, the difference between the low and the high bid is less than the price paid for our design services. Often the difference between the high and average bids is close to our fees, too.
reduce change orders
Starting from a design that you are already familiar with and a detailed set of plans will normally greatly reduce expensive change orders during the construction process.
independent advice
Another benefit is that since we're not building the project, we don't have an incentive to raise the cost in order to increase our profit. Nor do we work for the contractor, so we can give advice on the contractor's bid or actions.
We offer consulting services for quick, rough ideas that can become starting points for more detailed designs, for adressing specific issues, for looking at different concepts, or in any situation where you don't want to go to the expense of having plans drawn up.
You can choose a verbal consult without drawings, or a sketch consult with rough, not-to-scale concepts.
Our plans can be either taken as a package for a set price, or done on a time & materials basis for larger projects. Although some items overlap between sets, each is unique. All packages except estates have a limited number of revisions.
We send a proposal to you for approval, indicating what we'll do and how much it will cost before we start preparing plans.
Payment for plan packages is split into a retainer fee plus regular payments at project milestones for sets A-C. Estates begin with a retainer fee and are then billed monthly according to the amount of work done. This information is included in our proposals.
Occasionally, a client will request services that don't fit neatly into these packages. Since each proposal is prepared individually, we can customize our scope of services to your needs.
Set A provides illustrated conceptual options and a plan that is to scale (unlike sketch concepts). These plans are for people who do not want or need detailed construction drawings (contractors, for example).
Set B is for people who want construction drawings for getting bids, but don't require illustrated presentation drawings and more meetings.
The C set is the most complete package, and is for people who want to explore design options, want illustrated presentation drawings and construction drawings for bids.
Estate services provide all the services in the C set, plus additional meetings, animated walk-throughs, coordination with suppliers for custom details and fabrication, site visits during the construction process, travel to suppliers and other design services as required for the project's success.
