The Gold Pages
{ Your Resource for the Best House & Garden Services }
NEW THIS ISSUE: THE BEST LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS AND DESIGNERS
Finding good home services is no easy feat. Our search began with mothers, friends, teachers – even the patients and staff at our dentists’ offices. Once we managed to compile a list, we researched the services, pricing, company history, and unique selling propositions of the most highly recommended. We contacted the Better Business Bureau to make certain these firms came up clean, with no complaints lodged. Finally, we checked references and asked ourselves if indeed these were people we’d want to do business with. If the answer was yes, they appear in the listing that follows.
Armstrong Berger Inc.
Landscape architects and planners John Armstrong and Bruce Berger say they have been credited with possessing “an uncanny ability to empathize with, and understand, what a client wants and needs and to interpret that into a cogent architectural landscape plan.” To them, hardscape is as important as softscape in practicality of design and respect for the elements. If drainage is not engineered properly, for example, trees might die or water could flood the terrace. Emphasis on natural materials – copper, slate, stone, anything that looks like it’s been there awhile – makes even new jobs look mature. A European influence is present in their landscapes with cobblestones or a mix of paving materials softened by tiny-leaf groundcover. Armstrong Berger was one of the landscape architects for the Meier-designed Rachofsky house and has collaborated with a veritable who’s-who of the architectural world on other projects: Edward Larabee Barnes, Peter Marino, Frank Welch, Oglesby Greene, and James Pratt. Armstrong Berger has established a presence in the Southwest as well as in New York City, Long Island, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Hawaii. 2611 State St. 214-871-0893.
David Rolston Landscape Architects
“Lush” and “inviting” characterize gardens designed by David Rolston, so it’s not surprising his work is seen frequently in national shelter magazines. Nor is it surprising that he became a landscape architect. After all, he grew up on a farm in Iowa, where both parents gardened. “Dad grew trees and shrubs, my mother grew flowers and vegetables, so a love of gardening and understanding of botany was instilled at an early age.” After earning a bachelor of science degree in landscape architecture from Iowa State University, he went to work in Minnesota until the economy went south in 1979. And he went south, too – straight to Texas. In 1984, he worked in tandem with the region’s top architects with clients primarily in Lakewood, Bluffview, the Park Cities, North Dallas, Preston Hollow, and Fort Worth. He says, “My work as it’s progressing is becoming more about a strong sense of space and simplicity in that space. I give it character with texture and by turning the plan a little on its side.” For example, he is using more containers for color rather than big seasonal swaths and prefers to expand the usual repertoire of plants and flowers to include more natives and grasses, though he is not didactically purist. Typically, his gardens contain water features – a pond, a pool, a fountain, a fountain within a pond – and pathways leading to points of interest that “invite lingering and reflection.” Though his designs are structured, he eschews stiff and unnatural plantings within the structure, preferring free-flowing, asymmetrical beds. Among the projects he’s currently working on: the Montgomery Farm subdivision in Allen, where plans include designing green spaces, walking trails, and other amenities “to enrich people’s lives.” 5646 Milton St. 1st Floor, Ste. 110. 214-824-6333.
Lambert’s Landscape Company
“Classical, romantic gardens” is how renowned interior designer Sherry Hayslip describes gardens bearing the Lambert imprint. The firm was founded in 1919 in Shreveport by Joe Lambert Sr. His brother Henry and Joe Jr. opened a Dallas office in the mid-1930s and planted the first azaleas in the city along Turtle Creek Boulevard after developing a method that compensated for the unfriendly soil and the lack of rain. The Lambert family remained involved in the business until 1980, when it was sold. Last September, design and project manager Paul Fields formed a partnership with two others – the former president and the division manager – and bought out the previous owner. With three landscape architects, three residential landscape designers, and 85 employees, the firm focuses exclusively on landscape design and construction, fine gardening, and high-level maintenance programs for upper-end residences in the Park Cities, Bluffview, Preston Hollow, and North Dallas. Garden managers assigned to a property function like private English estate gardeners, while their tree-maintenance program ensures complete organic tree care – pruning, spraying, fertilization, and root-flare exposure. Lambert’s is known for beautiful, traditional gardens and innovative use of garden ornaments. Fields says, “We leave concrete paver terraces to the local nurseries. Our clientele is well-traveled. They have an appreciation for fine gardens and what it takes to create them. That may mean locating and acquiring antique garden ornaments for clients, some of whom have museum-quality collections.” When asked what is trending, Fields replied, “Large plants to feed the need for instant gratification. People don’t live in homes for a long time. When they move in they want a mature garden immediately. Another trend is the use of unusual materials like French limestone and Chinese granite.” The best testament to Lambert’s is that the gardens built by Joe and Henry back in the ’30s are still going strong. 6333 Denton Dr. 214-350-8350.
Harold Leidner Co. Landscape Architects
What sets apart this highly successful architectural landscape firm is that its principal, Harold Leidner, involves himself personally in every project from start to finish. The company is also distinguished by its focus: 100 percent of its work is the designing and building of high-end residential gardens, primarily in the Park Cities and Preston Hollow. The company’s signature: luxuriant gardens that are classic and traditional. “We build instant lushness,” Leidner says. “Our gardens are beautiful the day we leave.” Leidner was born and raised in Dallas and earned a degree in landscape architecture from Texas A&M. He cut his teeth working for Naud Burnett for a year, then Lambert’s for 12 years, before forming his own business in 1990. According to Leidner, although the company’s main business is landscaping, they are very hardscape-intensive. “We do a significant amount of drainage, lighting, sprinkler systems, and other outdoor improvements”. For hardscape, they serve as a general contractor; for softscape, they use in-house people, a system that allows them the flexibility to shrink or grow depending on the project. The company has developed a software program that provides estimates, so clients know exactly what they’re buying and what it’s going to cost. But Leidner’s secret weapon is software that enables the client to take a virtual tour through the proposed garden and landscape. After the tour, clients are given a leave behind, a book containing a series of snapshots of the entire landscape design – garden, plants, ornaments, and structures. 1601 Surveyor Blvd. Carrollton. 972-418-5244.
Mesa Design Group
The business that started 24 years ago with a couple of landscape architects has evolved into an international enterprise with 40 landscape architects grouped into strategic teams in five studios. Beyond residential landscaping, they do urban design and planning and are a leading designer of environmental education centers, nature preserves, town centers, retail developments, comprehensive city plans, and master-planned communities. Their residential landscape studio focuses on contemporary gardens using mainly native plants that will survive and flourish. They were the landscape architects for a celebrated pump house converted into a guest residence off Turtle Creek. Their reworking of a storm-water drainage unit was so innovative it won an award and will be featured in The Gardening Book of Texas, slated for publication in 2007. They work with such leading architects and architectural firms as Frank Welch, Lake/Flato, Max Levy, Corky Cunningham, and Bodrun + Fruit. Mesa Design Group is known for using materials that relate to the architecture to affect a seamless transition between house and garden. “We try to use materials out in the garden you may not have seen before and to use them in a simple fashion,” says landscape architect Mary Ellen Cowan. Crushed bluestone and crushed granite might be used for a driveway with plant material that will hop through the stone. They have won a number of awards for residential landscaping projects, from ranches to contemporary houses. 3100 McKinnon St., Ste. 905. 214-871-0568. www.mesadesigngroup.com.
Naud Burnett & Partners Inc.
The elder statesman of Dallas landscape architecture, Naud Burnett established the firm that bears his name more than 50 years ago. His colleagues call him a “plant genius,” a gift that he’s applied to the Margaret Elizabeth Jonsson Color Garden and Eugenia Leftwich Palmer Fern Dell at the Dallas Arboretum. The firm has amassed a plethora of landscape design awards such as awards for the master plan of the Dallas Civic Center, The Cheekwood Botanical Garden in Nashville, and the Clydesta Plaza in Midland. And how’s this for a claim to fame: Burnett and his partners have provided residential landscape services for many people from Forbes richest Americans list. Burnett graduated from Texas A&M at 19, taught at Texas Tech, and earned his stripes working for Joe Lambert before forming his own business. While they specialize in high-end residential landscapes, their work runs the gamut from intimate, 10 by 20-foot gardens to 140-acre properties, from institutional design to large-scale land planning. Burnett founded the Crape Myrtle Society of America and the Dallas Chapter of the Azalea Society of America. In 1966, he established an enterprise his partners share in Casa Flora Inc., a major national and international supplier of ferns. Senior landscape architect Lee Overstreet, says, “Our clients’ interests come first and foremost. We give them personal service, are conscientious about time spent in the design process, and stick within the budget – if there is one,” she hastens to add. They design swimming pools, build overhead structures, put in low retaining walls, install outdoor lighting, and handle virtually everything that’s on the exterior of the residence. 5217 McKinney Ave. 214-528-9014.
Robert Bellamy Design, Landscape & Construction
Proponent of the outdoor room and the outdoor fireplace, Robert Bellamy is a lover and liver of the outdoor life. If you’ve ever seen the four-lot complex that comprises his home, office, and garden rooms for entertaining, you’ll know what we mean. Surrounded by trees rescued from various excavation sites and built up into a series of berms, the visitor is surprised at every turn, mostly by the sense of privacy and the immense expanse of sky available in the heart of urban East Dallas. The place is a perfect advertisement for who he is and what he does. Here a tree is decorated with glassy streamers and colored lights (“my Christmas tree”). There a tiled table under a wooden canopy serves as a convivial outdoor dining spot. And here, a file of uber-sleek fountains he designed showcases his instincts toward the architectural and sculptural. Gates crafted from rusted metal are works of art. The pool is a creative take on a swimming hole, round and dark, punctuated by a serpent-like figure in metallic tile embedded into one side of the pool. “I got started because I always loved architecture and always built things as a child. I loved the outside, so I worked in nurseries like Lambert’s in high school and college.” He learned from doing – building a deck for a friend, then a garden, staying on to do the landscape. He studied in France for a year in college and traveled throughout Europe. Then a dozen years ago he went to the south of France with a group of landscape professionals for a total-immersion course in the chateaux, belle poque houses, and gardens of the Mediterranean. He realized he could build the same types of landscape structures and use the same kind of textures in Dallas. “If a client has an architectural piece such as a fountain, I’ll try to benchmark it – such as putting it at the end of an alle of trees. I’m a tall Texan; I’m always trying to expand the space outward – put a dowel in here, reverse the curve on these steps – so the homeowners can fold themselves into the yard.” He employs two designers and six people who work in the field. 1904 N. Prairie Ave. 214-826-4612.
