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FOR FOUR DECADES, P. Allen Smith has designed beautiful environments that inspire, provide solace, joy, and furnish families with an idyllic foundation for memory making. It is said that appreciation of fine landscapes is a skill akin to appraisal of painting; we direct our work to meet this expectation. We focus on classical harmony, horticultural curation, and adherence to everlasting design principles. Our creations improve with time, consider site-in-context, and thoughtfully honor each unique client. We bring a southern sensibility of love of the land and endeavor to imbue each of our projects with carefully articulated improvements.
Our portfolio includes an emphasis on private home and estate properties, inspired commercial clients, and most recently partnerships that extended our work to larger conservation developments.
P. Allen Smith
President and Founder
"There are no final pictures in landscape design, just dynamic scenes set in motion, with each season revealing something new and delightful."
In addition to working with private and corporate clients, we participate in collaborative projects with architects, community designers, and builders. We regularly work on projects of a wide diversity of scale, from urban home sites to multi-decade master plans. The breadth of our work extends to corporate campuses, family compounds, by-invitation private clubs, golf courses, the grounds of a governor’s mansion, and municipal parks. Our work may focus on unlocking the potential of intimate urban spaces or multi-thousand acre exurban retreats.
With all of our endeavors, we focus on creating traditional, balanced landscapes with abundant horticultural selections that honor site and context.
Garden and Estate Design
We aspire to continue the work of landscape giants from centuries ago who crafted everlasting properties and whose influence continues to this day. Our landscapes are intended to endure for generations. Our methodology first uncovers the passions of our client, considers the unique and special characteristics of each site, and then produces a logical path to completion. Mr. Smith’s 30 years of relationships, specialized sourcing, artisan relationships, practical construction and extensive plant knowledge, on-the-ground experience, and leadership of our team all foster project success and efficiency.
Project Management &
Client Advocacy
Our team of designers, gardeners, and foremen provide horticultural assessment, garden and architectural installation, and estate management consultation services, as requested. This offering includes boots on the ground oversight, plant sourcing, soil optimization, project installation, engineering and project management, custom architectural and hardscape design, and a diversity of custom site remediation services.
We feel strongly about good design and being a good neighbor. In addition to design and construction, we also regularly advocate on behalf of our clients to community boards, historic societies and HOAs.
Conservation Development
Our team works regularly with developers on conservation community designs. This endeavour improves the living environment for residents, while preserving the natural assets of a region in a net-zero, organic manner.
In addition to scaled considerations, we regularly focus on the finer details of outdoor environments. This includes sourcing historic art pieces, designing fountains, pools, and driveway approaches, curating plant collections, iterating seasonal color installations, commissioning hand-crafted gates, disguising security devices, introducing low-visual-impact privacy walls, and selecting specific soft- and hardscape materials for custom designs.
Past clients have enjoyed our unique knowledge and specialties, and have had highly personal requests expertly fulfilled. Requests have included garden follies, aviaries, stumperies, aircraft landing fields, kitchen and herb gardens, wildflower meadows, and architectural transitions that connect home to land. We carefully attend to the sensation of the site in person, refine our designs with rigorous research, and direct improvements with exacting consideration, utilizing the strongest technology available.
We value discretion, our clients’s privacy, and their trust. This respect has provided for the development of long-lasting relationships, many of which now span generations and multiple property refinements. Our client list remains private, except by explicit allowance.
Veere Grenney
Bunny Williams
James Carter
Gil Schafer
Mark Sikes
Lew Oliver
Historical Concepts
Tom Fazzio
Balance, harmony, beauty, health are all foundational qualities we strive to achieve with each of our projects. We believe that treading lightly upon the land, being careful stewards of nature’s gifts, and preserving a site’s distinguishing characteristics yield the most compelling and long-lasting rewards. We prioritize a site’s best assets by walking the site and focusing on viewsheds, existing living material, terrain, elevation variances, existing architecture, regional references, and natural resources. Our approach is to create a communication between indoor and outdoor, where inhabitants enjoy the complete environment throughout the seasons. Windows act as framing elements with gracious views, ancient trees become functional sculptural forms providing shade and texture, and built additions are sensitively installed that accentuate our experience of the land.
Experience has informed us that nature sensitively supplies the most logical and sustainable solutions. With our work, we carefully weigh our environmental impact with each decision and recommendation. Material selection, building processes, and terrain adjustments are considered through a intricate prism of past, present and future site and environmental welfare.
501-376-1894
pasa@pallensmith.com
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