Landscape Architecture and the Luxury LA Home: A Construction Perspective
Grading, drainage, olive trees, and the coordination between builder and landscape architect that makes a luxury LA property sing.
The landscape is often the last thing scoped on a luxury renovation and the first thing the client sees when they arrive at the finished home. Our team at New Horizon Development brings the landscape architect onto every project as early as we can, because grading, drainage, and site utilities decisions made in the first month of a build will define the landscape a year later.
Grading and drainage
The grading plan needs to work for the house and the landscape simultaneously. When it doesn't, the landscape architect ends up designing around drainage swales that were never meant to be visible. We coordinate the grading with the landscape architect at DD, not CD.
Site utilities
Landscape lighting, irrigation, and low-voltage need conduit stubs before the hardscape goes down. Every luxury project we build has a landscape-utility rough-in package coordinated with the general trench schedule.
Mature trees
Craning in a mature olive tree over a completed roof is a signature LA luxury move — and it is much easier when we've planned the crane pick during construction rather than after. Same for mature palms, oaks, and specimen agaves.
The palette
Water-thoughtful, largely native, mostly evergreen, with a strong olive/cypress/citrus spine and seasonal color as accents — that's the palette most of our LA landscape architects converge on. It's also the palette that ages best in the LA climate.
Contact our team if you're weighing a landscape reset on a luxury property. New Horizon Development partners regularly with the best landscape architects in LA and can introduce you.
