Know Your Pro: Design-Only vs Design-Build
When considering a landscaping professional, property owners face a confusing array of titles: Landscape designer? Landscape architect? Landscape contractor? Design-build contractor? Landscaper? Gardener? Although there can be a bit of overlap among these roles, it’s worth focusing on two: design-only versus design-build.
The landscape architect’s specialty is conveying the “look and feel” of a space as well as the details of its construction.
The design-only professional — a landscape designer (unlicensed) or landscape architect (licensed) — provides just that: design, and only design.
Verdance, for example, is a design-only firm. We leave the hard work of construction to others; usually the heaviest thing we’ll lift with our soft hands is a T-square. We can help manage a project through construction, but that involves diplomacy and logistics rather than the coordination of labor and materials.
Similarly, we can help estimate costs, but our fingers are not on the pulse of construction prices the way a contractor’s are.
Our specialty is knowing how to envision the potential of the new landscape, and how to communicate that vision not only to our client but also to the contractor who will be bidding and installing the job. We take great pains to clearly articulate the details of a project in our plans, because those details will be used by contractors to formulate their estimates and bids, as well as by planning and building departments to issue permits.
The design-build professional, by contrast, is a landscape contractor (hopefully licensed) who also possesses some expertise in landscape design in addition to their skill in construction. They may be trained in landscape design, or even licensed as a landscape architect; a larger firm may employ design staff, or may subcontract design work to freelancers.
Because the design-build contractor will be bringing their own ideas to life, they usually don’t need to develop all the details that a landscape architect might.
As a result, the design-build contractor often can work faster, and less expensively, than an independent landscape designer. They might not even need to create a planting plan, if they have in their head what goes where (and have the owner’s trust).
In fact, the only documentation the design-build contractor really needs to produce is whatever “shop drawings” are required to win the owner’s approval, and the building department’s permit. The design-build contractor’s specialty is bringing raw ideas to life, and many are brilliant at it.
So which pro is the best choice?
It depends.
If the owner needs to prioritize speed and/or price, the design-build contractor is often the right option. And because they provide a single point of contact, they can make it easier for the owner to get answers quickly.
However, if creativity and bespoke solutions are priorities, the landscape designer or architect is almost always the better choice.
Most design-build contractors manage risk by only proposing ideas they know they can build, and build profitably. (Construction revenue usually subsidizes their design services.) At worst, this can result in “cookie-cutter” projects that, however attractive, all look pretty similar.
The independent designer’s goal, on the other hand, is to develop the best ideas — whether or not they’ve ever been seen before — then help the owner find the best contractor to realize them.
The landscape architect can also be a liaison between the owner and the contractor, acting as the owner’s representative to bid the project out among several competitors, and to help the project stay on track when the owner can’t (or doesn’t wish to).
These benefits usually require additional time and money to attain, but the returns may be well worth it in the form of a unique and thoughtful design, a well-vetted installer, and a smoothly managed project.