Landscape Design Consulting

Company Profile: Landscape Design Consulting creates beautiful landscapes with a special emphasis on water, stone, and plants. Our president, Sean Walters, is a professional landscape architect with decades of multidisciplinary experience informing the unique ability to view a project through multiple lenses simultaneously. This enables Sean to function as a single point of contact across all relevant variables, thereby cultivating the holistic methodology on which sustainable practice is based. Landscape Design Consulting blends art and science - connecting the dots across constraint-driven projects - to curate visionary landscapes for our clients that are as functional as they are beautiful.

Design Philosophy: Landscape Design Consulting draws inspiration from Japanese Gardens - where every element is intentional, and the boundary between built and natural environments dissolves. Our approach begins from thirty thousand feet, designing fully integrated landscape systems while concurrently developing every facet of an owner’s program. We specialize in the design of outdoor living spaces on environmentally complex sites within regulated areas, where constraints are used as a platform for innovative thinking. Landscape Design Consulting believes that successful landscape design creates a dialogue between architecture and nature, extending the form and function of a home into the landscape while fostering a seamless connection with the surrounding environment.

Sustainability: Responsible landscape design should promote the health of the environmental and ecological systems that sustain us. Landscape Design Consulting balances built and natural interests through a holistic design approach that maximizes the comfort of the built environment while mitigating environmental disturbance. An often overlooked dimension of sustainability is human engagement: people care for what they find beautiful. Truly sustainable landscapes, therefore, must inspire stewardship through beauty, as well as functionality.

Landscape Architect | Landscape Design Consulting: Outdoor living including a luxury infinity-edge pool and spa, pool house, retaining walls and terraces, outdoor kitchen, fire pit, custom patios and walkways, stoops and stairs, driveway with Belgium block edging and aprons, native and ornamental plantings, and landscape lighting for a private residential estate on Long Island Sound in New Rochelle, New York.

---

The Process: Landscape architecture is a methodology through which an owner's program, or intended use and requirements for a space, is refined in accordance with the unique drivers shaping each project. The concurrent development of interconnected program elements is fostered through the architectural process where drawings, drafted in a universal language, are created for use by other consultants and for bidding, permitting, and construction. The following services are designed to facilitate this process.

1. Research & Discovery (R&D): Zoning and building code is researched to ascertain any relevance and potential impact on the project. Landscape Design Consulting uses this information, along with on-site observations tailored around the owner's program, to prepare and send a Request for Proposal (RFP) to a licensed land surveyor for a topographic survey. Upon receipt of the survey, Landscape Design Consulting creates a base sheet - or scaled drawing - showing existing features and relevant zoning restrictions. The base sheet serves as the foundation for all subsequent work. This work is typically engaged for a set fee.

2. Design Phase: The design phase begins with a preliminary concept plan that illustrates existing and proposed features in compliance with zoning and building code. The concept plan reflects a general level of detail from a zoomed-out perspective, and provides a framework for owner review and discussion. The concept plan is then refined with increasing detail and ultimately developed into a landscape plan, master plan, or other finished drawing, serving as the guiding document for project implementation. This work is typically engaged for a set fee.

3. Working Drawings (WD): Working drawings are technical documents that translate a finished design into multiple languages required for bidding, permitting, and construction. They include detailed information on existing and proposed conditions, layout and zoning compliancy, grading and drainage, planting and lighting, elevations, sections, and details, material schedules, and more. Time frames to complete WD are contingent on the completion of the preceding steps, but Landscape Design Consulting typically provides WD for a set fee.

4. Regulatory Services (RS): Notwithstanding our ability to mitigate town involvement in our projects, Landscape Design Consulting can also shepherd our clients' interests through the regulatory minefield by coordinating our services with other consultants, preparing and submitting applications, and speaking publicly at town meetings. Jurisdictional regulations have become a moving target so this work is executed on an hourly basis.

5. Additional Services (AS): Additional services include bid qualification services - like preparing and sending RFPs, and comparing proposals from various bidders - and construction administration services such as hand-selecting materials, and assisting with layout in the field. The scope of AS is determined, in part, by whether for not an owner chooses to hire consultants and contractors within Landscape Design Consulting's professional network - whereas entities in our network require less guidance and interaction, entities outside of our network usually require a greater level of engagement from our office.

Landscape Architect | Landscape Design Consulting: Luxury in-ground pool and spa, pool house, driveway, parking area, and garage, custom pergola, fire pit, patios and walkways, cottage-style garden with native, ornamental, and edible plantings, and landscape lighting for a private residence in Stamford, Connecticut.