Lena Whitaker
Founder and principal designer
Licensed landscape architect. Leads every consultation and signs off on every plan. Grows too many tomatoes.
About the studio
A design studio with its own crews.
Founded in 2008 by a landscape architect who was tired of watching good plans get built badly.
Our story
Why we build what we draw.
Lena Whitaker spent nine years drawing gardens for other companies to build. Too many of them came out wrong.
Steps landed at the wrong height. Walls skipped the drainage. Plants got swapped for whatever the nursery had that week. In 2008 she hired one mason and started building her own designs.
Today the studio has 34 people on payroll: designers, masons, planters, a lighting crew and a care team. We take on 14 to 16 builds a year so every client gets a designer on site each week.
A garden is the one part of a house that should look better in year ten than on the day you move in. We build for year ten.
The people
The designers you will meet.
Every project has one lead designer and one crew lead. You have both of their cell numbers from day one.
Marcus Bell
Design director
Draws the 3D views and lighting plans. Runs the Friday photo updates so you always know where your build stands.
- Darnell HayesMasonry lead · 14 years
- Rosa SalinasPlanting lead · 9 years
- Tom KesslerLighting lead · 7 years
- Ana MorenoCare team lead · 6 years
Credentials
The paperwork behind the promise.
Ask for any of these before you sign. We send copies with every proposal.
Licensed landscape architect
Lena holds a Georgia landscape architecture license. Plans get stamped when a permit requires it.
Insured and bonded
$2 million in general liability, plus workers' compensation for every person on site.
Our own crews
34 people on payroll. No day labor, and no subcontracted stonework or planting.
Visit the studio
Come see the materials in person.
Our Westside studio has stone, brick and lighting samples. Visits are by appointment, Monday to Friday.