Residential Advisory & Design
Experienced, independent advice for homeowners planning significant outdoor projects.
If you’re searching for a landscaping contractor, landscape designer, pool company, or outdoor-living contractor, you may also benefit from having someone independent help you evaluate the project before you make a major commitment.
Most homeowners begin by looking for someone to build the project. ViewPoynt offers something different: experienced, independent advice from someone who understands design, construction, contractors, and the decisions that go into a significant outdoor project.
I work with St. Louis homeowners on residential landscape design, landscaping, swimming pool, landscape renovation, and outdoor-living projects. Sometimes that means reviewing a project that has already been designed or priced. Other times, it means helping develop the design and plan from the beginning.
My residential advisory and design work is focused primarily on the St. Louis, Missouri region, with select projects at Lake of the Ozarks and in nearby Illinois.
Independent Advice — On Your Side
I am not selling you construction, representing a contractor, or earning anything based on who you ultimately hire.
My role is to help you understand the project, evaluate the choices in front of you, and identify questions you may not know to ask.
My responsibility is to you and to the project.
Project Advisory
Talk to three landscape professionals and you may get three different opinions—about plants, materials, construction methods, drainage, grading, or even the overall approach.
Sometimes there is more than one reasonable way to solve a problem. But experience matters too. Not every recommendation is based on the same depth of knowledge or the same amount of experience dealing with similar projects.
The challenge is knowing how to sort through those differences, understand the tradeoffs, and decide what makes the most sense for your project.
Evaluate the Design
Does the design accomplish what you want? Could changes improve the way the space functions, simplify construction, or reduce cost without compromising the overall design?
It can also be difficult to compare designs when they are presented differently. One company may provide a simple black-and-white landscape plan, while another presents a polished color landscape rendering or 3D landscape design.
A more sophisticated presentation does not necessarily mean a better design.
What matters is whether the design solves the problems on the site, uses the space well, addresses grading and drainage, connects the different elements, and can be built successfully.
For homeowners who do not look at plans regularly, an experienced review can help separate the quality of the design itself from the quality of its presentation.
Evaluate the Proposal
A proposal can look detailed and still leave important things out.
Do you know what is missing?
Are grading, drainage, utilities, demolition, access, restoration, allowances, finishes, and other project elements actually included? And if you have more than one proposal, are the contractors really pricing the same scope?
You do not always know what you do not know.
I can help identify gaps, exclusions, assumptions, and unanswered questions before they become change orders or unexpected costs.
Evaluate the Contractor
A good design still depends on the right people to execute it.
I can help you evaluate whether a contractor has the experience, people, systems, communication, and resources the project requires—and whether they are a good fit for your particular project.
Residential Design & Planning
Sometimes the project needs more than a review. It needs to be developed.
If the project is not yet fully designed, I can help develop the residential landscape and outdoor-living design, define the scope, explore alternatives, and determine how elements such as patios, pools, walls, structures, circulation, grading, drainage, and plantings should work together.
I can also help identify appropriate contractors or specialists and think through construction approach, priorities, or phasing before you begin asking for prices.
Experience Behind the Advice
My perspective comes from more than four decades of experience in the landscape architecture and construction industry, including 30 years building and operating my own successful St. Louis landscape architecture design-build company.
That experience included complex residential landscaping, outdoor-living, swimming pool, hardscape, construction, and landscape renovation projects involving many different trades and disciplines.
Confidence Before Commitment
Many of the most important decisions happen before construction begins.
An experienced, independent perspective can help you ask better questions, understand the alternatives, and feel more confident about what you are committing to.
Start With a Conversation
Tell me what you are planning—or what you are already in the middle of—and what you would like help thinking through.
From there, we can decide whether a conversation, project review, design assistance, or more ongoing involvement makes sense.
