Custom residential projects have become larger and more elaborate as more people want to spend time at home. Richard Cohen, the founder and president of Richard Cohen Landscape and Construction, Inc., has over 40 years of experience and has seen the industry evolve over that time. When starting his company in 1976 the average home's landscape looked considerable different than it does today. Over his decades of experience, Cohen has won numerous awards for his residential installation projects, so LC/DBM reached out to ask about his career and his perspective of the custom residential and outdoor living aspect of the landscape contracting industry.

How did you start your company?

I had my general contractors license and I moved out to Mission Viejo, and my wife's boss had bought a house there, so I got an opportunity to bid on his landscaping, which included some masonry and some cement work and a patio cover, so that's the first job I did about 40 years ago. Every year we did more and more jobs and increased our volume and the things we were able to take care of. Because I started as a union electrician, I had a good background in reading blueprints and understanding total scope.
The company started in 1976. Virtually every year we've grown, other than a couple years where there was a recession or something similar causing us to be stagnant. We were doing construction and also commercial landscape maintenance. We did that for a number of years, but then sold the maintenance division in 2019.
The company is relatively small right now, because I am doing construction jobs in conjunction with another Landscape Contractor who is a friend of mine. So, we have one big job in Coto de Caza that's well over $1 million and another job we are doing in the same area that's about $400,000.
I have an office manager, an estimator, and a purchasing guy in the office. And I literally only have 3 employees right now and I subbed them out to the friend doing the $1 million job.

 

What percent of your work is residential projects?

Over the years our residential has accounted for well over 80% of my jobs. Once in a while I'll get a commercial job that I'll work on. I've done a lot of work up at saddleback church along with some other non-residential projects, but overall, 80% of my work is high-end custom residential.
I have some landscape architects I work with, also landscape designers. So, the nature and the features of the job determines who we refer the design work to.

What trends have you seen in custom residential projects and why do you think they are popular?

For our jobs, we use a 843 bobcat, 463 bobcat, and a ditch witch multi-use tool. I have two big trucks left, a Chevy Colorado and my vehicle.
A lot of people want to have all the things at home so they would enjoy using it with their friends and family. They made the jobs very elaborate with outdoor kitchens and sports bars and I think that's because they want to be able to entertain without going on a big trip. For instance, in the last several years with Covid people didn't feel like they could go anywhere to vacation, so they want to change their house to make it like a stay-at-home vacation. Their pools are getting really elaborate with disappearing edges and different colored lights and similar effects. They're doing cellar roof patio covers, outdoor sports bars, very elaborate masonry and concrete work. All that stuff has really ramped up in the last 5 or 6 years.

How has Covid affected business?

Obviously, last year and everything, we had to be really careful about what went into to office, and make sure people did not transmit the disease, but I haven't had anybody that's gotten it.
I sort of changed what I'm doing. When people call for information on the job, I check with them to see what's involved with the job to see if I want to bid and do the job with that other contractor that I'm working with and do it in conjunction. Some of the jobs I refer to other companies. I'm 77 years old and I don't need to be that busy. It's kind of time to shut it back a little.

Do you have a favorite project you worked on during your career?

Probably my favorite overall job is in Newport Coast. It was a job I did over five years ago. The owner of that project used to work for Exxon Mobil, he was about the fourth highest executive on Exxon Mobil and with that company, when you become 65, you will retire. They lived in Texas at the time and bought a piece of property out in Newport Coast because he wanted to belong to the golf club there, so we worked with him back and forth on the design and making decisions, where they were in Texas and they would come out here and make some decisions on the materials and the plants and stuff like that. They were absolutely fabulous people to work with and that job is still one of my favorites.