gpd land design - capabilities

Landscape Design: Our design process combines the aesthetic and the practical. The layers of the physical site, the program elements, and aesthetic considerations overlap and intersect in the final design. The outcome manifests elegance, usefulness, and surprise while including the goals of the client.
Classroom Workshops: We organize and lead students in workshops that bring student’s ideas to the design and design ideas to the students. We address age-appropriate design and drawing concepts such as program, scale, safety, and layout. Typical work products include drawings and models. These workshops often become curricular opportunities as we address scale, North vs. South, spatial relationships, etc.
Volunteer Management: The grass-roots emphasis in many of our projects has given us extensive experience in volunteer building. Although the landscape contractor builds the majority of any site, there are always elements suitable for volunteer installation. These elements build ownership by the community into these projects and can help meet the budgetary goals. Appropriate selection of these tasks is critical for successful participation by volunteers. With active participation of the contractor and vendors, we organize a safe, fun, and rewarding day for the volunteers while maximizing the work accomplished.
Master Planning: Master planning is comprised of two key elements: data collection and preliminary design. We generate a master plan document summarizing the data and color rendering presenting the conceptual design. The document presents the research findings including existing conditions, adjacent property uses, proposed site uses, and proposed program elements. Preliminary design concepts are expressed verbally within the written document and visually as a color rendering of the proposed layout plan. The document also includes a phased budget estimate for the preliminary design. The document can aid significantly in grant-writing and presentations to fund raisers.
Project Coordination/Construction Administration: Each project requires a unique team of professional engineers, architects, and contractors whose skills combine to create a successful built project. Participation of each member at the appropriate project phase is critical. We administer and track the work of the design team to create a complete, buildable design. Once in construction, regular meetings between client, contractor, and ourselves promote the project’s completion as designed, within budget, and on schedule.