Prassas Landscape Studios LLC

Prassas Landscape Studio LLC is a practice dedicated to the thoughtful design of landscapes through the integration of sustainability and innovation. Residential gardens in the city and northern suburbs comprise most of the firm’s current work, with an emphasis on small urban gardens and roof top landscapes. The firm also has experience on a variety of commercial and multi-family projects in the city, including several green roofs.

The firm’s president, Stephen Prassas, ASLA LEED AP has over 14 years experience, 12 as a registered landscape architect in Illinois. He began his career in landscape construction before getting his bachelors of landscape architecture from the University of Illinois. After expanding his experience with a landscape firm specializing in native landscapes and a planning firm that pioneered performance zoning, Mr. Prassas worked for Peter Lindsay Schaudt Landscape Architecture. During his tenure there his project work encompassed private residential estates, campus work and public parks, including the redevelopment of the 98-acre park surrounding Soldier Field, North Burnham Park.

Old Town Courtyard, Chicago

The renovated courtyard of this urban townhouse has become the centerpiece of the client’s home. The windows of the three adjacent rooms look directly into courtyard and also to the fourth wall that is screened with a vine covered lattice. A staggered path of Wisconsin limestone pavers leads from the front gate to the courtyard through a shade garden. A gracious set of solid limestone stairs replaced a steep set of concrete block stairs. Grade adjustments, removal of a fence and a cohesive planting design have unified what were disconnected spaces.

Photo: Stephen Press

Roscoe Village Retreat, Chicago

To fulfill the owner’s desire for a Japanese inspired garden, an urban oasis was created through the use of plants rich in texture and linear bluestone slabs designed as a contemporary abstraction of traditional Japanese forms. The deck was renovated with the use of bamboo to provide a cohesive design for the landscape and the spacing of the bamboo was creatively used to control views and light.

The last several years have seen some of the heaviest storms in Chicago in a long time. The design incorporates a series of solutions to a drainage problem, including four interconnected rain barrels that overflow through a bamboo fountain into a cistern set within a sunken rain garden. This design has handled the heavy rainfall with grace. Creative stormwater solutions and a rich landscape design have provided the owner with a Japanese-inspired garden within this small urban space.