Certainly, the economic downturn throughout the country has had a most important effect on landscape architecture in the Lone Star State, but some very innovative marketing concepts are seemingly keeping the wolf away from the door of most of the better known landscape architectural firms.

Less than two years ago, Texas and the “Sun Belt” were the meccas for unbounded commercial construction and not only were the “native” Texas LA firms reaping the rewards, but a number of firms moved into the Dallas and Houston areas from other parts of the country to get in on the “boom.”

Today, some of those firms have moved back to the north, east and west, but others have prevailed and are making an impact on the Texas landscape. But, during the past 12 to 18 months, many of these have cut back on staff and have reduced the size of their offices, due to the downturn in the economy.

On the other hand, one of Texas’ largest and oldest landscape architectural firms, Myrick-Newman-Dahlberg & Partners, Inc., with offices in Dallas and Austin reported that 1985 was the best year?EUR??,,????'??+financially – that they had experienced in their 32year history.

“The history of our firm is a good graph for the growth and stature of landscape architecture in the Southwest,” Walter G. Dahlberg, president of Myrick-Newman-Dahlberg, said in a recent interview. From a firm of six professional landscape architects in 1970, we have continually grown – with the ups and downs following the economic cycles – into a full professional land planning, urban planning, college and university planning, development consulting and leading landscape architectural and environmental design firm.”

The cycles about which Dahlberg spoke are, of course, not localized in Texas. They happen all over the country.

In comparing the role of the landscape architect in the 1970’s and today, Dahlberg said, “the major difference between the early 70’s and the early 80’s is that the clientele and the marketplace has become better educated, more aware and extremely demanding. They know what they want and we had better provide it for them. But, that is the way it should be!”

?EUR??,,????'??The major difference between the early 70?EUR??,,????'???s and the early 80?EUR??,,????'???s is that the clientele and the marketplace has become better educated, more aware and extremely demanding.?EUR??,,????'??

Most of the large developers in Texas today are so aware of the role of the landscape architect that they make sure that he or she is on the “first team” when a development is begun. They know and understand why their project MUST consist of good design and environmental quality.

A few years ago, the client had no idea what “hardscape” and “softscape” were. Today, it is amazing how many of them use that terminology.

“This public awareness has not come easily,” Dahlberg continued. “It took projects such as our Landscape Master Plan for D/FW Airport, Dallas City Hall, the Hyatt Regency at Reunion and other projects to convince the public of the absolute necessity to have a landscape architect as part of the design team.”

As much as two years ago, firms that had been in business in Dallas and Texas for a long period of time began to see the “handwriting on the wall” in commercial projects. They then devoted more of their marketing time and efforts into wooing public clients and the government projects that continue when the private sector has one of its “downs.”

Dahlberg touched upon this when he said, “the major thrust of our work through the 70’s was for private commercial developers, but we have always tried to balance – as best we could – the private and the public work. Major commissions such as the National Park Service, including all the national parks, historical areas and recreational areas in Texas, along with some city park and recreation work, as well as, considerable institutional work, have helped us keep a balanced portfolio of work. We are continuing that today.”

Both public and private landscape architectural work brought the influx of out-of-state landscape architectural firms to Texas. Sasaki & Associates won the design competition for the Dallas Arts District and sent Stuart Dawson, a partner in the firm, to Dallas to open an office. Since that time, Sasaki has procured even more work in the Texas arena.

Johnson, Johnson & Roy, Inc., came down from the north when they saw what was happening in Texas and Clarence Roy came down to run the office. The firm is now well established in Texas and has a number of both private and public projects in the works.

Two large California firms, SWA and POD, Inc. came to Texas and have contributed a great deal to the landscape architectural picture in the state.

In commercial landscape architecture, there is another large group of professionals?EUR??,,????'??+those who handle the landscape architectural design work for large architectural firms and are a part of their staff. Some engineering firms also have a landscape architecture department. But today, every one of these firms is seeking the business that remains in Texas and, at this point, there seems to be enough to go around, although it isn’t like 1983, 1984 or even 1985.

“We had the most successful year in our history,” Dahlberg said of 1985. Our projections for 1986 are not quite so bright. We have already seen some of the projects on which we were working ‘put on hold’ for an indefinite period.”

He continued, “the encouraging aspect of this current slow down is that we feel that it is short term and that within 12 to 18 months, many of our major projects will be ‘back on line.’ ”

“The interesting phenomenon that we see occurring is that the large land owners?EUR??,,????'??+based on this breathing period’ – are seeing more innovative land planning services to prepare for the projected upswing in 1987.”

Not only are the landscape architects whose practice is primarily commercial looking forward to 1987 and an “upturn,” but the residential landscape architects are finding that their services are not quite in as much demand due to the economic slump.

Lambert Landscape Company, a 50-year-old Dallas tradition in residential landscape design, has recently been into some commercial design as well. However, according to Mahlon Perry, director of design, for the company, a number of the commercial projects have been shelved and there is a slowdown in large, more affluent residential design.

But, Perry also sees a change in the type of landscape design that is in demand. “Small properties, zero lot line homes are prevalent today among the more affluent people and they are trying to recapture the feel of a larger home by using granite courtyards, unusual planting materials, big trees and in many cases, sculpture. They are probably spending about the same amount of money on smaller spaces.”

Mahlon Perry has seen a number of changes in the type of landscape design that residential clients demand. “People have become much more educated,” Perry said. “For example, for a while when people started traveling by air to Europe, all the rage was English gardens – English perennial gardens. That was on large estates and residential lots that averaged one-half acre or more.”

Developers have praised the landscape architects with whom they worked for making theirs an economically viable project.

“That is virtually a thing of the past and the courtyard concept is what we are definitely dealing with today. However, there are two very strong points that relate directly to our clientele and they are; a higher awareness of quality and the reduction in the size of residential property. We have been able to combine the two and please our clientele and there are many other landscape architects in this area who are doing the same thing.”

Lambert’s has also expanded its horizons by providing maintenance services to its clientele. This includes horticultural services, fertilization, pruning and, in fact, complete maintenance.

There are a number of other large firms in Texas who have both a landscape architect on staff and a very good maintenance program for their clientele and this is continuing to prove to be an economically viable alternative to the “downturn” in the overall economic picture.

Certainly today, there is almost a “glut” of commercial property in the marketplace in Texas and, in a number of cases, developers have praised the landscape architects with whom they worked for making theirs an economically viable project. In Texas today, it is absolutely necessary to have fine design in the landscape, in many cases site specific sculpture, and all the amenities possible to lure tenants into the grandiose office buildings standing virtually idle in the large Texas cities. But, it works in a number of cases, so all the developers are having to secure the services of a proficient landscape architect to make sure their property meets the standards set forth by the prospective tenants. You can certainly find a number of clients who will quote you chapter and verse on just how important the landscape design is in securing tenants and making a project “pay for itself.”

There are certainly plenty of landscape architects in Texas to take care of the current workload, but this current “slow down” won’t go on forever. The larger firms are continuing to find good projects in the public sector and the smaller firms are going fine with small projects and residential work so, to sum up “what’s happening in the landscape architecture field in Texas: it is not as good as it was several years ago, but it’s coming back and it may not take all that long.”

But what has come of this economic downturn in Texas is more attention paid to quality of life in landscape design and a greater interest in landscape architecture from the general public. They are seeing now just what the landscape architect contributes to their everyday life!