RESIDENTIAL LANDSCAPES - LaddModernLA.com

PRIORITIES:

CURB APPEAL: Ladd Modern Landscape Architecture can help improve your property’s value; develop spaces for happy and healthy relaxation, recreation and interaction. There are so many ways to do this:

Stand out or blend in?
Create a theatrical stage or a castle?
Interpret or contrast?
Illusion or substance?
Create a blank canvas or a finished work?
Fluid and adaptable or fixed and stable?
Miniature golf or understated elegance?

We can help you plan for sale in a few years, or to enhance your forever home.

WELCOME: Would you like to create or enhance an arrival sequence, focusing on the entry? If the entry is obscured, we draw guests toward the entry. Secondary focal points enhance the character of your residence too. Way-finding in an indistinct setting says, “This way!” to your visitors. A home with no apparent way of gaining admission says, “Keep out!” We can do that too, if that is what you want.

UTILITY: Want to make your yard more functional? Maybe all you want are some ideas. We can just talk or we can sketch out a concept. If you already know what you want, then we can prepare formal plans for construction.

Thinking about a new: Outdoor kitchen; seating area; fire pit/fireplace; paved paths or textured surface; patio structure; lighting; entertainment; fountain; pond or pool; terraces; play area; garden’ bio-swale/retention basin? Ladd Modern Landscape Architecture can help.

PRIVACY: Make this your space. We can help reconcile the public-facing side of your residence with a desire for more privacy in the spaces where you live. The degree of privacy depends upon what’s important to you.

SECURITY: Integrate modern safety measures without making your home look like a fortress. Examples:

Improve efficiency for cameras or motion detectors by creating new sight lines or utilize the existing sight lines.

Create boundaries or even barriers with various degrees of subtlety.

Improve visibility and eliminate blind spots.

Lighting does no good if it creates shadows to hide in.

SINGLE FAMILY and MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENCES: Ladd Modern Landscape Architecture can help establish a hierarchy of spaces. These include: public; semi-public; shared common areas; private spaces and places of private seclusion. We can help you to make the site “legible”. In other words, to cue visitors as to where they belong/do not belong, or to provide boundaries where cues have been too subtle.

Themes within a locality send a message to prospective neighbors, “We’re all in harmony.” This doesn’t necessarily mean duplicating all the same plants and site furnishings. Sometimes harmony involves toning down discordant elements.

We can help set the stage for neighbors buying into mutual security. The popular term is “All eyes on the street“.

Homeowners associations (HOAs) and other DESIGN REVIEW agents have standards for projects within their jurisdiction. Ladd Modern Landscape Architecture can help make your ideas comply with their guidelines, or to help you establish these guidelines.

ADAPT your landscape to accommodate changes you want to make: a new patio; home office; room addition; storage area or additional dwelling unit (ADU).

Let’s talk about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or just about removing barriers to getting around in your yard.

See “Other Services” on our “Services” page.

DO IT YOURSELF (DIY): Ladd Modern Landscape Architecture can help create plans and a sequence of events from demolition to construction and maintenance.

MAINTENANCE: Is your landscape becoming overgrown and needs landscape maintenance guidelines? Let’s talk about what to focus on, add, remove, trim up, and light up. If a landscape element is going to take a lot of care, let’s put it where we get the most out of your spending.

The elephant in the room is WATER USAGE. Let’s find ways to reduce your water bill and adjust the landscape to your liking.

This often means LAWN REDUCTION or completely eliminating the lawn area. Some water districts offer rebates for reducing the size of our lawns. This usually involves having us report accurate measurements of both the existing and proposed lawn areas.

We can substitute a ground cover or shrubbery for lawn that uses less water. You want to get more out of your land? We can find other uses for the lawn area, such as an entertainment, play or garden area.

Drip irrigation and smart controllers (timers) use less water. Let’s talk about updating your irrigation system.

Sometimes the plants we love demand too much water. If we’re unwilling to do without any water-loving plants, perhaps we can limit them to the areas we use the most.

Lowering water usage doesn’t necessarily mean a reduction in attractive and functional recreation and entertainment spaces. Let’s examine the options.

HOMEOWNERS and PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANIES, our efforts are directed toward you. Other landscape architectural companies seem to assume visitors to their website engage landscape architectural services all the time. We don’t. Ladd Modern Landscape Architecture provides information about the process, so you will know what’s going to happen before you sign a contract.

Note that the services we ultimately perform for you will be spelled out in the contract between us. Contract sum depends upon which options are chosen. The information provided on this website is to give you an idea of what we can do for you. Some services are not needed, desired nor included in all projects. All plans are schematic in nature. Figures we give for work areas and quantities are to help you obtain the optimal comparison between installation price quotes. Contractors and installers must become familiar with the site before taking on the work.

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Ladd Modern Landscape Architecture

P.O. Box 593

Long Beach, CA 90801-0593

562-513-3208

LMLA@KCBX.net