How the Design Process Works at Luciole Design

About Design...
A landscape design should be a custom creation, tailored to fit your lifestyle and taste. It should "flow", its elements linked together harmoniously into something that works.
Landscapes should never be collections of "things": a pool here, a patio there, a fountain somewhere else.
Sacramento's climate allows many styles of landscape. Nearby regions such as Napa allow even more varieties of plants. The Lake Tahoe area is a great place for native plants and perennials that require winter cold.
Let Luciole Design be your guide to creating the environment that's right for you.
About construction
Probably the biggest influence on construction cost is whether you're going to do the work yourself or hire a contractor. Hiring a contractor is by far the simplest way to accomplish a project. Doing the work yourself may save you money, but cost you more aggravation than it's worth unless you've done landscape construction before.
Most production landscapes with common features such as concrete patios, shade structures, perhaps a built-in gas grill, drainage, irrigation and planting cost upwards of $25,000.00 if the work is done by a skilled landscape contractor. Adding options such as seat walls, stone paving, custom water features, outdoor fireplaces, specimen trees and lighting can easily drive the price upwards to $40,000.00 or more. Add a swimming pool and the project cost can hit $60,000 or much more, depending on options, and there are a lot of them. Hilly sites and extensive demolition can add even more costs. These prices are only shown here as guidance, and should not be considered contractual - only the contractor bidding your project can give you solid pricing information.
If you're contemplating a new landscape, it makes a lot of sense to hire a landscape architect. We can guide you through the design, and help you choose between options, provide plans that allow you to get comparative bids from different contractors, and give you advice about style. All this generally for less than the price of a new flat screen television - and often less than the difference in bids between contractors.

Distant Projects*
We do work on projects well outside our area. In order to establish a price for design services, we would need to start with a phone interview. If we decide to proceed, we would ask for more base data. This data normally includes a professional topographic survey with features (such as buildings and existing trees), a floor plan, elevations of the building(s), digital photos of the site, and a copy of any CC&R's and any other administrative requirements or restrictions affecting the design.
If you're modifying an existing structure, we'd need both existing (as-built) plans and new construction plans. Most if not all of this information can be transmitted via e-mail.
If the site is a long way from Sacramento, California, fees would also include travel to and from the site as required, according to the scope of services agreed upon.
So far, we've worked on projects in France, Ethiopia, and Florida. This range of projects gives us experience working with plants in temperate, Mediterranean and tropical climates.