Continued Landscape Management spotlight in Landscape Architecture Magazine

Landscapes aren’t static: Site conditions change, plants die, and gardens can disappear inch by inch. Patricia Cox knows this firsthand, as deer damage, intense weather conditions, and other factors have transformed two acres of her residential gardens in Lakeside, Michigan, since 2010. Until 2017, maintenance was ad hoc, Cox says. That changed when Chicago-based Hoerr Schaudt launched Continued Landscape Management (CLM), a program that attempts to bridge the gap between design and maintenance. Cox had a long-standing relationship with the firm and felt her gardens could benefit from a more comprehensive approach. “Everybody is seeing the garden from a different perspective,” she says. A formal program “helps the maintenance company stay in tune with the garden.” John Evans, a partner at Hoerr Schaudt, says the idea for the services grew. John Evans, a partner at Hoerr Schaudt, says the idea for the service grew out of visiting projects five or six years after completion and recognizing that the landscape’s evolution can be broken down into an establishment phase and a curation phase. “We noticed things weren’t working as we’d thought, or something unexpected happened with the drainage,” he says.

The firm now has at least 70 residential and 10 institutional clients enrolled in its CLM program. It’s an attempt to reckon with one of the most persistent challenges landscape architects face. “I think there are landscape architects that revisit projects and keep a pulse on them, but it is a challenge because the next commission is most likely what you’re leaning into, Evans says. “A project becomes part of a firm’s portfolio but is seen in the rearview mirror.”

Foundational to Hoerr Schaudt’s program are seasonal walk-throughs with clients and contractors. The landscape architect identifies which maintenance strategies are working and which need modification. This might include plant substitutions, recommendations for drainage or irrigation changes, demonstrations on pruning practices, edging techniques, or weeding instructions. After each visit, a report with sketches, photos and a punch list is created that details maintenance instructions between visits. 

Mike Ciccarelli, ASLA, who leads the CLM team at Hoerr Schaudt, says that early on, it was challenging to communicate to clients why ongoing, coordinated curation is critical to maintaining the vision for their gardens over a longer period. Pitching the service over email, phone, or video calls made it too easy for clients to decline, so the firm holds a special meeting on-site toward the end of construction. Ciccarelli says that they’ve learned “we need to actively pursue each project, set up a project transition meeting, and show our clients in person why they need CLM.”