OUR SERVICES

WE OFFER A FULL RANGE OF MASTER PLANNING, SITE PLANNING, GREEN AND BLUE INFRASTRUCTURE, AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE SERVICES.

We work initially with hand sketches and believe in the power of communication using free-hand drawings. We also use computer-generated illustrative plans and models. Design development, construction details, and technical drawings are drafted in AutoCAD with a concern for precision. Given that contractors in this region may not always follow written specifications and construction documents, we recommend our personal involvement on-site during construction and the first few years after plant installation, to ensure a quality execution and anticipate any needed change.  

Work in our 27 years of practice in the islands has covered the broad project categories of Site Regeneration/Resiliency, Stormwater Management/Green Infrastructure, Site Planning/Redevelopment, Campus/Institutional, Waterfront/Urban Rehabilitation, Gardens, and Design/Build.  Working in the socio-economic and political reality of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, we are constantly learning to balance our high standards and desire for innovation with pragmatism and compromise, accepting that here we may need to wait years before landscape architects are given the tools, professional recognition and leadership role they deserve, like elsewhere in the world in collaborative teams for regenerative, nature-based infrastructural projects.

WE WELCOME COLLABORATIONS WITH ARCHITECTS, ENGINEERS, AND OTHER CONSULTANTS WHERE OUR EXPERTISE IS SOUGHT AND VALUED EARLY IN THE DESIGN PROCESS.

We have a deeper understanding of a site’s qualities, constraints, expressive power, topography, ecology, broader context, spatial characteristics, and potentiality than anyone else in the team, also considering specific programmatic requirements. Therefore, we can frequently formulate key questions upfront, inspire the team with new site-specific possibilities, or guide the design toward a more sustainable outcome from the start.  Conversely, we know that we expand the reach of our profession and our potential by collaborating with leaders from other fields, including ecologists, hydrology engineers, soil scientists, climate specialists, architects and artists, and seek those projects that foster such wide collaboration. 

WE SPECIALIZE IN ON-SITE VEGETATION ASSESSMENTS TO HELP ANALYZE THE CONDITIONS OF EXISTING TREES AND PREPARE LISTS OF APPROVED AND PROHIBITED INVASIVE SPECIES

We also write and illustrate site-specific and budget-specific operational management guidelines, to assist with the long term development and prepare our clients with response to the constant change of the landscape.

WE ARE CONCERNED WITH SOIL AND BIODIVERSITY LOSS AND WITH THE INVASION OF COMMERCIAL PLANT CULTIVARS THAT MAY NOT OFFER ECOLOGICAL SERVICES BUT BRING PESTS AND DISEASES

We are experts in soil restoration design and plant procurement, with Rossana’s knowledge of local coastal plant communities, having grown and observed many species in their natural environment over the course of the years. When operating from St. Thomas, we ran a branch business in design/build landscapes and developed a nursery where native trees and other endemic and rare species were grown from seed collected in the wild, to supply plants difficult to find otherwise.

Many of our projects have been implemented with plant procurement and installation as part of our services, allowing us to monitor plant development during the period of maintenance operations. The nursery was destroyed by Hurricane Irma and that branch of business has now closed. However, the learning experience of how important native plant species look like and grow and flourish from seedling to adult, and the tools and care needed, remain for us to offer to our clients and collaborators.

Depending on the scale and location of the project and the relative difficulty to import plants and soil amendments, we help create holding areas directly at site during the implementation phase: here, plants are acclimatized and cared for while waiting to be planted or propagated and grown from local sources.

In these holding areas is where we do ad-hoc experimentation for mixing available mineral and organic materials to improve the structure of the planting soil. Our projects are much stronger and more successful if we can interact with the construction crew sharing our planting and soil knowledge, showing our innovative planting procedures avoiding chemicals, recycling landscape clippings into compost, refining the design directly on site and even intervening with needed changes over the course of the first few years after planting.