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Mining Their Dreams
Dream jobs seem to come in bunches for watershapers:  If you do the best work you possibly can, apply your education, stand by your work and, most of all, leave your clients happy, nice things that happen with one job seem to lead almost inevitably to other great jobs. That’s exactly what happened with this project:  I was led to it by satisfied clients who became my best salespeople and told all their friends how delighted they were with the work we’d done and how much they were enjoying the results.  By the time I actually met this new client, there was no question about us having the inside track; indeed, we just jumped right into the job’s specifics. From the start, we were given tremendous creative freedom, there was no big concern about budget and the work was all about
Estate of Mind
Working on estate-sized residential projects is like assembling huge jigsaw puzzles in which all sorts of disparate pieces must ultimately fit together.  While many of the individual parts have their own character and entail particular design and construction challenges, they're all part of a big picture you need to hold firmly in mind through every project phase. At GCS of Woodbridge, Calif., we pride ourselves on operating on a grand scale and on delivering the whole package, from landscape, hardscape, irrigation, control, communications, lighting and sound systems to watershapes of all sizes and types.  Keeping all those elements sorted out within a single operation means we need to
Estate of Mind
Working on estate-sized residential projects is like assembling huge jigsaw puzzles in which all sorts of disparate pieces must ultimately fit together.  While many of the individual parts have their own character and entail particular design and construction challenges, they're all part of a big picture you need to hold firmly in mind through every project phase. At GCS of Woodbridge, Calif., we pride ourselves on operating on a grand scale and on delivering the whole package, from landscape, hardscape, irrigation, control, communications, lighting and sound systems to watershapes of all sizes and types.  Keeping all those elements sorted out within a single operation means we need to
A Master at Work
I first became an admirer of Roberto Burle Marx while I was a student in landscape architecture at the University of Florida:  His remarkable work, which combined a special brand of modernism with the lush potential of Brazilian settings, was incredibly powerful and the major formative influence on my own professional career. I'd learned how to draw in school and had acquired the technical skills it took to be a landscape architect, but it was seeing how Burle Marx approached his landscapes and paintings - not to mention the way he lived his life - that gave me the spark I needed to define my own approach. My personal relationship with him began soon after I graduated in 1981.  I'd read an article in the Miami Herald about Burle Marx turning 70 and began writing to him in hopes he'd invite me to visit his home in Brazil.  A couple of months later, I received a call from my friend Lester Pancoast, a well-known Miami architect.  Burle Marx was in town and was staying as his houseguest, Pancoast explained, suggesting that since Burle Marx had a free evening I might want to take him to dinner. My future wife and I spent a nice evening with Burle Marx, who was reserved but very polite and seemed all the while to be sizing us up.  After dinner, we went to Pancoast's home, where Burle Marx showed us
A Master at Work
I first became an admirer of Roberto Burle Marx while I was a student in landscape architecture at the University of Florida:  His remarkable work, which combined a special brand of modernism with the lush potential of Brazilian settings, was incredibly powerful and the major formative influence on my own professional career. I'd learned how to draw in school and had acquired the technical skills it took to be a landscape architect, but it was seeing how Burle Marx approached his landscapes and paintings - not to mention the way he lived his life - that gave me the spark I needed to define my own approach. My personal relationship with him began soon after I graduated in 1981.  I'd read an article in the Miami Herald about Burle Marx turning 70 and began writing to him in hopes he'd invite me to visit his home in Brazil.  A couple of months later, I received a call from my friend Lester Pancoast, a well-known Miami architect.  Burle Marx was in town and was staying as his houseguest, Pancoast explained, suggesting that since Burle Marx had a free evening I might want to take him to dinner. My future wife and I spent a nice evening with Burle Marx, who was reserved but very polite and seemed all the while to be sizing us up.  After dinner, we went to Pancoast's home, where Burle Marx showed us
Night Eyes
Landscape-lighting design is my obsession:  Not only do I make my living at it, but it has also reached a point where it informs the way I look at every landscape and watershape I encounter - whether I'm working on those spaces or not. When I visit almost any site - and particularly when I spot an interesting garden - I almost instantaneously begin formulating ideas about how I'd light it.  That's a good thing, because it keeps me professionally sharp, but it's also a bit addictive:  Once you start visualizing how dynamic particular places can be when properly lit, you get hooked on the mental exercise and start enjoying the intensity of the experience. In the beginning, of course, those clear visualizations
Night Eyes
Landscape-lighting design is my obsession:  Not only do I make my living at it, but it has also reached a point where it informs the way I look at every landscape and watershape I encounter - whether I'm working on those spaces or not. When I visit almost any site - and particularly when I spot an interesting garden - I almost instantaneously begin formulating ideas about how I'd light it.  That's a good thing, because it keeps me professionally sharp, but it's also a bit addictive:  Once you start visualizing how dynamic particular places can be when properly lit, you get hooked on the mental exercise and start enjoying the intensity of the experience. In the beginning, of course, those clear visualizations
Citrus Sense
For years, I refused to eat tangerines and oranges because I hated the seeds. It was too much work to peel off the rind and then sift through the sections and pull out the seeds before finally getting to the juicy, delicious part of the fruit.  I opted instead to get my Vitamin C from other sources.   One winter several years ago, my attitude changed after I was handed a Satsuma tangerine.  Surprised at how easy it was to peel and even more stunned by the absence of seeds, I savored the fruit's sweetness and enjoyed a more natural form of vitamin intake.  In fact, I found myself devouring
Citrus Sense
For years, I refused to eat tangerines and oranges because I hated the seeds. It was too much work to peel off the rind and then sift through the sections and pull out the seeds before finally getting to the juicy, delicious part of the fruit.  I opted instead to get my Vitamin C from other sources.   One winter several years ago, my attitude changed after I was handed a Satsuma tangerine.  Surprised at how easy it was to peel and even more stunned by the absence of seeds, I savored the fruit's sweetness and enjoyed a more natural form of vitamin intake.  In fact, I found myself devouring
Graceful Reflections
In all my many years of working with water, I've never grown tired of its remarkable beauty and complexity - or of the variations it encompasses, the ways it changes and the endless fascination it offers to those who come into its presence. At the heart of water's ability to inspire us and rivet our attention is its capacity to reflect.  There's something truly magical about the way water mirrors the sky, a surrounding landscape, nearby architecture or a well-placed work of art.  It's a gift of sorts, a timeless bounty that has captured imaginations ever since Narcissus fell in love with