Ruppert Landscape Appoints Kang President & COO
Jessica Schwartz
These Colorado Firms Are 2022 ELITE Award Winners
Colorado’s landscape industry association, Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC), announced the recipients of its 2022 ELITE Awards. The ELITE Awards is the only program of its kind in Colorado and recognizes landscape companies and professionals who demonstrate unparalleled professionalism, excellence, management practices, sustainability, and innovation. “This has been another incredibly busy and challenging year for those who work in the landscape industry,” said ALCC Chief Executive Officer John McMahon at the November ceremony. “This year’s award winners exhibited impressive commitment to key values including environmental stewardship as well as sound business practices and community service.” ELITE Award categories also mirror the services and amenities ALCC member companies provide their clients. Awards include: Community Stewardship; Design/Build; Irrigation Management; Landscape Construction; Landscape Maintenance; Plant Design; and Sustainability. In addition, the Most Valued Player (MVP) category recognized five landscape professionals for their outstanding service and dedication to the industry. The 2022 recipients, finalists, and a brief description of their project submissions are as follows: Community Stewardship Gold Award: Environmental Designs – for installing a Holocaust Memorial Garden at a local synagogue as part of the Daffodil Project, an initiative to build living memorials to commemorate lives of children lost in the Holocaust. (See below.) Commercial Design/Build Gold Award: Designscapes Colorado – for innovative landscaping at a Park Meadows-area business to provide a more visually appealing landscape while reducing winter maintenance. (See below.) Residential Design/Build Gold Award: Lifescape Colorado – for upgrading an iconic Denver residence with luxury, eco-friendly amenities while blending ...
Embracing The Summer Slide (In Landscape Design!)
A backyard entertaining space earns top grades for Phase One Landscapes. How do you earn top grades for a patio project? Incorporating a water slide that maximizes summer fun—while transforming a sloped site from a negative to a positive—is certainly a great start! And the judges of the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC) 2021 Awards clearly agree. They bestowed an ELITE Award to a recent Phase One Landscapes project at Hanging J Ranch in Denver that included a water slide, pool, hot tub, patio, fire pit, and outdoor kitchen. “The owners had a beautiful backyard landscape before, but they recently retired and have a large family with grandkids now,” comments Phase One Landscapes Project Manager Brendan Heiman. “The goal was to have a space where up to 40 family members and friends could be comfortable together.” While the goal of the project was simple—adding outside entertainment space—the details and execution were more complex. The clients wanted the amenities listed above, but their backyard was significantly sloped and offered limited space for new design. So Heiman and his team jumped into the challenge. “We chose to terrace out their backyard into three different levels,” he explains. “The upper level included some lawn by their beautiful back deck. The second was their outdoor entertaining space including an outdoor kitchen, water feature, hot tub, fire pit, the pool, and lounge chairs. The water slide connected these two levels.” He continues, “The last level was a more native area that gives them ...
