This is a general outline of what to expect during the residential design process when you partner with us to develop the plans for your outdoor areas.
Initial Meeting
At the initial meeting, we will discuss your overall goals and objectives for your project. We will also review your design questionnaire and any other ideas, pictures, or clippings that you may have put together. Finally, we will walk your property, discussing your needs and concerns. This allows us to get a feel for the scope of your project.
Design Proposal
After our initial meeting, we will send you a proposal for the scope of services that we discussed at the meeting. The proposal will be based on the client providing a plat plan or survey of the property for us to use as a base for the design. If you choose to accept this proposal, you will be asked to sign one copy and return it, along with a deposit check, plat plan, and design questionnaire (if you have not already done so). Once we receive these items, we will communicate the proposed design schedule with you.
Site Visit
Upon acceptance of the design proposal, we will conduct a site inventory and analysis of your property. This involves documenting existing conditions and structures by taking measurements, digital pictures, and making general site observations based on off site and on site factors. If it is relevant to the design scope, we will document existing topography and elevations at this time. From this information we will produce the AutoCAD generated base map for the steps that follow. Don’t worry, you don’t need to take a day off of work – it’s our goal to make this process as convenient for you as possible and you do not need to be present during the site visit.
Preliminary Design
In this step of the design development process, we produce and deliver your preliminary design. This is the starting point of our design communication and the main focus of this phase is to develop the basic layout, including all desired elements from the questionnaire. We will present the preliminary design to you and after you have had an opportunity to review it we will answer any questions or concerns that you may have and gather your feedback to be incorporated into the next phase.
Final Design
In this step, we produce and deliver your final designs, which include all revisions and feedback from the preliminary review. It is during this phase that we produce your irrigation and/or lighting designs, if applicable, which are based on the overall layout decided upon during the preliminary review. The final design presentation includes one hard copy and digital copies of all plans. At this time we will also provide our recommendations for Landscape Contractors, if requested.
We hope this gives you a feel for the process. If you have any questions about the design development of your residential landscape design project or if you’re ready to get started, let us know.