landscape design
Scott Cohen is passionate about plants and especially those that produce beautiful flowers. Here he explains that while plants add a rich dimension to his designs, they do also attract pollinators, including bees, other insects, hummingbirds and even bats. Thankfully, it is impossible to have flowers without the creatures that help propagate them, but to his mind, having a garden blossoming with color and life is a source of tremendous joy and fascination.
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Regardless of style, scale or budget, watershape design in one way or another is about forging connections with the surroundings, especially in the presence of natural beauty. Making those natural connections by way of orchestrating human experience is a philosophy that has driven some of history’s greatest designers and continues to resonate today.
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Despite water usage concerns, grass remains a mainstay in both commercial and residential landscapes. Working with grass, explains Mike Logsdon, usually requires some level of moderation and a knack for knowing how to ply the multitudinous types of grasses for the greatest effect, based on client expectations and anticipated grassy needs.
There's no question that watershapes have become scarce on new golf courses. Where owners and designers once tried to one-up each other in terms of elaborate course design, including the expansive use of lakes, ponds, streams and waterfalls, today minimalism is the guiding principle, meaning water is rarely part of the program. There are exceptions, of course, but they are extremely few and far between. As one example, we completed a project back in 2016 that included a 23-million gallon irrigation lake that is also an amenity/hazard. Located at the Scottsdale National Golf Club (SNGC) in Scottsdale, Ariz., it's the only significant
The word xeriscape is one of those terms that most everyone has heard but few truly understand. When we think of xeriscapes or xeriscaping, most people immediately visualize a dry almost lifeless desert landscape with rocks and cactus. Because the "x" is pronounced like a "z" the word is often mistaken for a fancy way of spelling zeroscapes, which implies that it has no plantings or uses zero water. Neither is true. Working in the arid climates of the Texas hill country, I've embraced the xeriscaping concept as a way to create sustainable and inviting landscapes with minimal irrigation, but again, that does not
In August 1999, more than 30 professionals gathered at a small college in Southeastern Ohio to talk about water and absorb the rudiments of a collective "Philosophy of Design." In attendance were Rick Anderson and Richard Dubé of the Whispering Crane Institute and the Genesis 3 team, including Skip Phillips, Brian Van Bower and David Tisherman - all of them anxious to engage in a roundtable discussion about shared
The Rhythm of Design