It was a pleasure to produce landscape design plans for a new home in Gold Hill Mesa with the desire to become the first home in Colorado Springs to become registered by LEED for Homes as well as EPA’s WaterSense for New Homes.  GJ Gardner’s home constructed in the Colorado Springs neo-traditional neighborhood, Gold Hill Mesa, will be the feature home in the 2011 Housing and Building Association of Colorado Springs Parade of Homes.

Landscape Design for the 2011 HBA Colorado Springs Parade of Homes featured home in Gold Hill Mesa. Design provided by Olson Planning & Urban Landscapes.


The intention of the landscape design for the first GJ Gardner home in Gold Hill Mesa was to provide a low maintenance, low water use plant palette.  An important component of the design of the landscape was to show that a xeric landscape does not have to be uninteresting and lacking aesthetic qualities common to the non-xeric landscape.
Since this post was written, the GJ Gardner Home was registered as the First WaterSense for Homes Residence in the State of Colorado.  The landscape for the GJ Gardner Home was also awarded “Best Landscape” at the 2011 HBA Parade of Homes Award Banquet.  The home is in the process of receiving LEED Gold from the Green Building Council.
The following link includes updated photos of the finished product: Photos