Landscape Architect/Designer in Boulder/Denver?

Since my thread asking for help with replacing trees was a great help, I'm going back to the maggot well here for more advice...

Does anyone here do residential landscape design, or have a recommendation for someone that does, for a house in Boulder? Right now we have a relatively large, flat yard with a lot of grass and not much else other than an old, cracked concrete driveway and a couple of enormous spruce trees that I hate. We're looking at replacing the driveway, walkways and patio, replacing a fence, possibly building a pergola or similar, and generally making the front and back yard look nicer. It's a big enough project that I don't feel comfortable designing everything myself, and would love to get some ideas from someone who does this a lot.

Right now it's at the "pay someone for a few hours of their time to help come up with ideas" stage, but we're serious about getting it done. Budget will depend on what the designs we like would entail - not a super high-end project, but we want something that will look good and last for a long time.

Thanks in advance for your help and snarky comments...

Have you talked to Larry? I think he does commercial, but he may be able to help or give you a good name.

send me 500 and i will draw up some plans to turn your yard into a zen garden

Quote:

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Originally Posted by digitaldeath

send me 500 and i will draw up some plans to turn your yard into a zen garden

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With ropes and active avalanche bombing? No thanks

We just installed a great plan from Marpa Design Studio at our house in Boulder. Expensive at $4,000-ish for design but worth it. Our plan was peanuts compared to what Marpa usually does. Also vetted a few other, more budget options. PM me for details.

A local independent garden center (which had since gone out of business) did a comprehensive landscape plan for our modestly sized back yard in our old house for $150. Then they have us discounts on the plants they suggested. It worked out great for us since we didn't want a design build deal because we planned to do the work ourselves over the course of a couple of seasons. So maybe check a couple of your local garden centers and see if any of them offer design services.

I would recommend Black Forest Design. http://blackforestco.net/. My backyard is the featured project on his website front page. I think I paid about $1000 for all services, although my price was a bit cheaper becasue I provided the AutoCAD base plan to him. The project cost was about $20,000.

Thanks all, appreciate the links and advice.

Get a copy of your plat. It should show your house footprint and drive at minimum.

Handy planning tool. Doesn't have to be digital. A photo copy of the plat with some arrows showing what happens with rainwater is a lot of objective information to work with.
Obviously you want the LA to have a sense of your home, your neighborhood, and your aesthetics, but a pro can do a lot with very basic info, and it might help you define your goals.expects.