Luxury Design: Bringing Your Landscape Transformation from Concept to Completion
What does it take to transform a landscape? This collaborative, iterative process starts by hiring an experienced landscape design professional. The key to success lies in expert guidance and meticulous planning. Think of us as interior designers for your exterior. No two projects are alike as our work is completely custom, tailored to our clients and their property.
Our ideal clients have a strong appreciation for outdoor beauty and rely on us to transform their vision into a cohesive landscape. We thrive on the freedom to refine the details, making the countless micro-decisions that bring a thoughtfully designed outdoor space to life.
Before and After: A University Park family sought to update their curb appeal and outdoor living spaces with some very specific requirements: a private pond in the front yard and a water feature in back. We provided the family exactly what they needed while updating the curb appeal of the historic 1930's home. View the entire project here.
Design Only vs. Design-Build Firms: What’s the Difference?
One key decision when hiring a landscape professional is whether to work with a design-only studio or design-build firm. While both approaches have their merits, a design-only studio offers significant advantages for high-end, customized projects.
Design-only Studio: These firms focus exclusively on design and project oversight, acting as the client’s advocate. They source the best contractors and craftsmen for the job, ensuring the highest quality execution without being tied to a single builder’s capabilities.
Design-Build Firm: These firms handle both design and installation in-house. While this can be convenient, the design is often tailored to what the firm can build rather than what is truly best for the site and client.
Why Choose a Design-only Landscape Architect?
Unbiased Advocacy: We work in the client’s best interest, selecting the best vendors for each aspect of the project.
Greater Customization: With no in-house construction limitations, design possibilities are expansive.
Quality Control: We oversee installation with a critical eye, ensuring craftsmanship meets design intent.
Cost Transparency: Clients receive multiple bids from contractors, ensuring competitive pricing and value.
Expert Furnishings and Styling: Our process includes selecting furniture pieces, fabric, and accessories that enhance the outdoor spaces, ensuring they are fully functional and beautifully designed.
Before and After: Transforming the landscape of a 100-year-old Federal Style Home in Highland Park overlooking a beautiful lake created a luxurious yet tranquil retreat. We redesigned and renovated the property for the new homeowners, a New York family, to provide spaces for gathering and dining, lounging and relaxing. A tight deadline included a refresh with new hardscapes to integrate with the existing oval stone terrace, new plantings, and outdoor furnishings and fabrics. View the entire Lakeside Retreat project here.
Why Engage a Landscape Architect Early in the Process?
When building or remodeling a home, it’s easy to think of landscape design as the final step - the finishing touch after construction is complete. But bringing in a landscape design professional early in the process can make all the difference in a creating a home where indoor and outdoor spaces work together seamlessly. A landscape designer’s role goes far beyond planting trees and selecting materials. They help define how you will live in and experience your interior views, and ensures a cohesive connection between the built environment and the surrounding landscape. By integrating a landscape architect early in the design process, you gain:
Strategic Site Planning: Every site has unique opportunities and constraints, from topography to sun exposure. Early involvement ensure these factors inform the home’s design rather than becoming afterthoughts.
Indoor-outdoor Flow: thoughtful design ensures outdoor spaces function as extensions of your home, enhancing daily life.
Cohesive Aesthetic: A landscape architects collaborates with the architect and interior designer to create a holistic vision, tying together materials, textures, and views.
Cost efficiency: Planning ahead prevents costly changes later, ensure that site work, drainage, and grading are integrated into the overall project budget.
Understanding the Landscape Design Process
At Melissa Gerstle Design our process begins with a deep dive into how you want to use your outdoor spaces. This includes understanding your lifestyle, entertaining habits, and preferences for plantings and materials. A comprehensive design program might include:
Defined outdoor rooms for dining, lounging, and gathering
Circulation and pathways that enhance movement though the space
Framing of key views from inside the home
Climate considerations such as shading, wind protection, and sustainability
Material and planting selections that reflect both personal style and regional suitability
Space planning and furniture selection to ensure outdoor areas are fully functional, beautifully furnished, and tailored to your needs
From here we develop conceptual designs, refine them through detailed drawings, and oversee the installation to ensure the vision is executed flawlessly. Our approach integrates outdoor furnishings into the design process, selecting seating, tables, fabrics and accessories that align with the home’s architecture and the client’s style, making exterior spaces feel as thoughtfully designed as the interiors.
Here is an example of an in-progress design.