2019 Designer Awards

www.lux-review.com Page 7 LUX 2019 Designer Awards “Fundamentally, we feel the success of this project came from our team of professionals of varied disciplines working together to produce a beautiful and brilliant solution for an incredibly difficult and uniquely challenging project.” The success of this project and others is built on Cross River Design’s communicative, supportive approach to client service, as Anthony is eager to emphasize. "We also make effective communication a top priority from the very beginning of the client-designer relationship. Over the years we have found that great communication to be a common ingredient with every successful project. “From the beginning, we make it clear to our clients that the design process will be a co-creation between them and our design team, and that our first task will be to listen closely to what their thoughts, ideas and expectations are for the project. We spend a lot of time up-front getting to know our clients so that we may successfully incorporate their personalities and lifestyles into the design. We schedule regular meetings which include every member of the project team, at least one per week. This helps to ensure no one is left out of the loop, and that things progress exactly as planned with few, if any, surprises.” Within today’s landscaping market there are many developments which are changing the way firm’s work. Despite these changes, Anthony believes that Cross River Design’s focus on quality and exceptional service remains central to its ongoing success. “In the landscape design market, with social media and the Internet, clients are becoming savvier and more educated. It is exciting to have a more collaborative process, to be able to share and discuss ideas together instead of just the old-school way of its one-sided presentation. We are seeing our clients coming to the table more prepared then in the past and we encourage that. With countless images and examples available on social media and in on-line communities, clients are making up their own inspiration boards and sharing those during the design process. Our firm is also seeing people traveling to more exotic destinations and with more frequency, and they want to see these inspirations brought into their design. We feel the best way to manage what can sometimes be an overabundance of inspirational material is to get out if front of it at the beginning, and discuss how to best organize it so that it doesn't become distracting later on. “At the end of the day, there are inherent qualities about good landscape design that people will always be drawn to. Good flow, honest, timeless materials, a sense of enclosure and privacy, and a tasteful plant pallet. Yet, these days with purchasing becoming as easy as a swipe of a finger, people are hungry for the unusual and the hard to find. Clients are also asking for designs and solutions that can accommodate more than just the immediate family, but in many cases grandchildren and extended family. As these environments become more relevant and dear to our clients, we feel it is our responsibility as designers to create spaces that enable them to spend more time with their families doing whatever it is they love to do.” Ultimately, Cross River Design has achieved phenomenal success on a variety of projects over the past 27 years, and looking to the future, the firm will continue to work on even more exciting projects to bring it even greater success, as Anthony is proud to now conclude. “Looking back, last year was a specifically exciting year for Cross River Designs we installed two technically challenging, and extremely rewarding projects that we’re quite proud of. One of those projects was the roof top pool (previously mentioned) and the other was an five-acre corporate park and plaza. Included in the park was an eighty- foot-long, twelve-foot high granite fountain made up of over three hundred cubes of Mesabi Black Granite from Minnesota. Each cube weighed close to a ton, and required a hand chiselled finish on the three sides to meet specifications. The project was a collaborative effort and was years in the design process stage. When the fountain was completed, it was nothing short of a miraculous feat of engineering and craftsmanship for us. “Moving forward, we hope to be back on that project again this year to see first - hand how the fountain is performing, and the way visitors interact with it, and the way in which they use the many numerous green spaces we built throughout the park. We will remain committed to creating stunning outdoor spaces and offering our valued clients the benefit of our award-winning approach to client service over the years to come.” Cross River Design