Elements: Water Features In the Landscape When summer heat starts to set in out here in the East Bay, we appreciate even more the element of water in the designed landscape.  Water features can take many forms.  A swimming pool, of course, offers the ultimate refresh on a hot day.  But even [...]

Embellishments For The Landscape In creating outdoor living spaces, design is often in the details!  Whether designing a landscape from scratch or adding to the existing landscape, stylistic embellishments can completely change the overall effect of the space.  Embellishments personalize the home landscape and reflect your unique style, for a fun, relaxing outdoor [...]

HOW TO HIRE A LANDSCAPE DESIGN PRO You’ve decided you want to hire a professional to design your landscape, but how do you decide who to call?  If it’s your first time hiring a design pro of any sort, it can be an especially daunting idea.  There are many services available to help [...]

Landscape Lighting During the summer months we often stay outside later due to the nice weather, so this is the time of year when we find that landscape lighting really shines. Lending cozy elegance to the night landscape and safely illuminating paths and steps, lighting allows us to enjoy our outdoor living [...]

Screening The Landscape The private retreat experience is a must when designing residential landscapes. Every landscape benefits from at least one space that feels safe, sheltered and secluded. For some homeowners, the privacy of a front gate or fence keeps the entire property a private space, while for others a garden nook with [...]

Traditional Landscape Architecture We like to think we’re at least sort of worldly, and so we realize that “Traditional” is kind of a misnomer.  After all, designed landscapes have been created worldwide for millennia, and we acknowledge the influence of Egyptian, Greek, Moorish, Chinese, Japanese, and many other Landscape Traditions on our [...]

Design for Play For so many of our clients, play is an important part of relaxation, and summer is the perfect time to embrace outdoor play-spaces!  Having a place to unwind outdoors is something we all need, whatever form your leisure activities take.  For some of us, it’s sports – golf, sand volleyball, [...]

Designing Tiny Landscape design is an interesting challenge at any scale – to incorporate all of the important elements in a practical and aesthetic way, at the highest level of comfort and with the right style and mood, designers have a lot to think about.  But when we are working with a small [...]

Emotion In The Landscape We ask ourselves many question when designing Outdoor Living space… “How will people interact in the landscape?  How will the landscape hold space for people?” and, perhaps most importantly, “How will that experience feel?”  Our emotions allow us to make sense of the world around us as [...]