Original Landscape Concepts

Original Landscape Concepts is a luxury residential landscape design and construction firm headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 2008 by Mike Dickerson and Dave Hunchik, the company has established itself as one of the leading landscape design firms in the greater Dallas area, serving discerning homeowners across North Texas from the historic estate neighborhoods of Preston Hollow and Highland Park to the growing luxury communities of Southlake, Westlake, and Frisco. Drawing on over 50 years of combined professional experience, the firm is distinguished by its rigorous design process — which begins with hand-drawn conceptual renderings and progresses through detailed construction documents to full in-house installation — encapsulated in its operating philosophy of "Design, Build, Install."

The firm operates from its Dallas base at 7879 Spring Valley Road, maintaining an in-house crew complemented by a trusted network of specialty trade partners. Its portfolio spans the full architectural vocabulary of North Texas residential design, from Georgian Revival estate gardens and French formal pools to contemporary infinity-edge pools and transitional outdoor living pavilions.

History

Original Landscape Concepts was founded in 2008 by Mike Dickerson and Dave Hunchik, two landscape professionals who between them brought more than 50 years of combined experience in residential landscape design and construction to the enterprise. Based in North Dallas, the company was established to serve the luxury residential market that characterizes many of the region's most affluent neighborhoods — large-lot estate properties with demanding architectural contexts and homeowners who expected the same level of craftsmanship and creativity in their outdoor environments as in the residences themselves.

In the years following its founding, Original Landscape Concepts built a portfolio anchored in some of Dallas's most prestigious addresses. Projects in Preston Hollow — the storied North Dallas neighborhood whose large-lot estates have long attracted the city's most prominent business leaders, athletes, and civic figures — became a cornerstone of the firm's reputation. Work in Highland Park and University Park, the independent Park Cities municipalities embedded within Dallas whose median home values rank among the highest in Texas, added to a body of work that spanned the full stylistic range of North Texas residential architecture: from Georgian Revival and Tudor estates to Mediterranean villas and contemporary new construction on raw land.

By the 2010s, Original Landscape Concepts had extended its footprint beyond Dallas proper into the rapidly developing luxury communities of the North Texas suburbs. Projects in Westlake — where sprawling lot sizes and contemporary architecture create opportunities for ambitious multi-phase estate master plans with hillside terracing and infinity-edge pools — and in Southlake and Keller, where large residential developments attract homeowners seeking resort-caliber outdoor environments, broadened the firm's geographic reach and its design vocabulary.

Today, Original Landscape Concepts maintains an in-house crew of installers and craftspeople complemented by a trusted trade network of pool builders, irrigation engineers, lighting designers, and specialty masons. This model allows the firm to control quality at every phase of a project while assembling the right team for each unique scope. The company holds a 4.9-star rating on Houzz, based on reviews that consistently cite the principals' collaborative approach, the quality of the finished work, and the responsiveness of the team throughout the design and construction process.

Services

Landscape Design and Build

The core service offered by Original Landscape Concepts is comprehensive residential landscape design and construction. The firm's process begins with an extended discovery phase in which the principals study the site, review the home's architectural plans, and work closely with the homeowner to understand how the outdoor environment will be used, who will use it, and what the property's existing conditions — soil, drainage, existing vegetation, and neighboring views — will support.

From this discovery process, a conceptual plan emerges, typically presented as hand-drawn sketches and renderings that allow the client to visualize the proposed transformation before construction begins. This commitment to hand drawing at the conceptual phase is a deliberate distinguishing feature of the firm's approach: a pencil sketch communicates spatial proportion, planting character, and material texture in ways that computer renderings often fail to convey, and it keeps the design process open and iterative rather than committing prematurely to fixed dimensions and specifications.

The design phase progresses from conceptual sketches through detailed construction documents that address grading, drainage, irrigation design, architectural lighting plans, and full material specifications. This documentation is the foundation of a construction process that proceeds predictably — on time, on budget, and without the costly surprises that attend less rigorously prepared projects. The firm manages all phases with its in-house crew and trade partners, maintaining continuity of supervision from the first shovel to the final planting.

Custom Pool Design

Swimming pools designed by Original Landscape Concepts are conceived as integral elements of the larger landscape plan rather than independent installations dropped into an existing yard. The firm designs custom pools across a broad stylistic spectrum: sleek infinity-edge pools cantilevered over hillside terraces; geometric lap pools framed by precision-cut stone coping; classically proportioned recreational pools with integrated raised spas, sun shelves, and beach entries; and naturalistic free-form pools embedded in lush garden settings.

Each pool design is developed in concert with the surrounding hardscape, planting composition, and outdoor living areas to create a cohesive environment where pool, patio, and garden feel like parts of a single design intention rather than separate installations. Water features — including spillway walls, sheer descents, fire bowls, and fountain jets — are a recurring element of the firm's pool designs, adding sound, movement, and visual animation to the outdoor environment.

Completed pool projects include a modern estate pool in Westlake featuring a multi-level terrace system engineered to manage the site's significant grade change; a soft modern pool pavilion in Preston Hollow combining a covered outdoor living structure with a custom pool and integrated garden; and a contemporary infinity pool on a transitional modern home in Lakewood that takes visual advantage of the neighborhood's mature tree canopy.

Outdoor Living Spaces

Outdoor living design has become one of the firm's most requested services as Dallas homeowners increasingly seek to extend the comfort and sophistication of their interiors into the outdoors year-round. Original Landscape Concepts designs outdoor living environments that may include custom outdoor kitchens equipped with built-in grills, refrigerators, warming drawers, and pizza ovens; covered pavilions and pergolas engineered to provide shade in the intense North Texas summer while remaining open and comfortable in the milder shoulder seasons; fireplaces and fire pit installations that extend the outdoor season into the winter months; and entertainment zones with integrated audio-visual systems and architectural lighting that transforms the outdoor space at night.

Particular attention is paid to the North Texas climate in the design of outdoor living spaces. Summer temperatures in the Dallas area regularly exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit for extended stretches, and the outdoor season — without climate mitigation — can be compressed to the relatively short temperate windows of spring and fall. The firm's pavilion designs typically incorporate deep overhangs to minimize solar gain, ceiling fans and optional misting systems, and careful orientation to capture prevailing breezes, allowing clients to enjoy their outdoor environments throughout significantly more of the year.

Hardscape Design and Construction

Hardscape — the stone, concrete, and masonry elements that provide the structural framework and circulation system of a landscape — is executed by Original Landscape Concepts with a level of material selection and craft that reflects the firm's positioning in the luxury residential market. The firm designs and oversees the construction of motor courts, entry drives, garden walkways, terraced patios, retaining walls, raised planters, outdoor staircases, and ornamental stone walls, selecting materials that are both aesthetically sympathetic to the architecture of each home and technically suited to the challenges of North Texas's expansive clay soils and occasional extreme weather.

Material palettes span a wide range: rough-cut Oklahoma limestone and native fieldstone for traditional, rustic, and ranch-style projects; precision-cut Lueders limestone and travertine for contemporary and transitional designs; hand-laid antique brick and hand-made Saltillo tile for period and colonial-inspired homes; and imported natural stone for projects where the budget and design vocabulary justify its use. The firm's masonry crews are trained in both dry-laid and mortared construction, and the firm's construction documents specify engineered drainage systems beneath every hardscape element — a critical detail in a region where expansive clay soils can heave and settle dramatically with moisture fluctuation.

Garden Design

The garden design services offered by Original Landscape Concepts address the planting, horticultural, and ecological dimensions of the landscape. The firm designs formal parterre gardens with clipped hedging and structured seasonal planting beds; English-inspired mixed perennial borders with layered combinations of flowering shrubs, ornamental grasses, and seasonal color; contemporary native and adaptive planting schemes suited to the North Texas climate with reduced supplemental irrigation requirements; shade gardens that make use of the mature tree canopies common in established Dallas neighborhoods; and culinary gardens for clients who wish to grow herbs, vegetables, and cut flowers within the broader estate landscape.

Plant selection at Original Landscape Concepts reflects a close attention to the specific conditions of each site — soil type, drainage behavior, sun and shade exposure, and the presence of existing trees whose root zones must be respected and preserved. The firm works with specialty nurseries across Texas to source high-quality specimens, including large-caliper trees that provide immediate visual impact and shade at the time of installation rather than requiring years of establishment. The firm's design archive — accessible on its website — presents a library of hand-drawn concept sketches organized by style and project type, offering clients a window into the range of design vocabularies the firm works in: from French formal and Bali-inspired tropical to Cape Cod ranch and contemporary infinity pool.

Estate Master Planning

For large properties — typically those exceeding an acre in extent — Original Landscape Concepts offers estate master planning services that address the complete outdoor program of the property as a unified design. A master plan is a comprehensive document that maps out the full potential build-out of the landscape, from entry gates and motor courts to pool complexes, kitchen gardens, sport courts, putting greens, guest accommodations, and service infrastructure. Because large estate projects are typically executed in phases over several years as budgets allow and priorities evolve, the master plan provides a governing framework that ensures each subsequent phase integrates seamlessly with what came before — maintaining consistent sightlines, grade transitions, drainage strategies, and planting frameworks even when individual phases are designed and built years apart.

Master plan projects in Westlake, Southlake, and the Stonebridge Ranch community of McKinney have involved phased programs spanning multiple construction seasons, with the plan establishing a landscape vision comprehensive enough to guide decisions about grading, infrastructure placement, and material choices long before those decisions must be made.

Service Areas

Original Landscape Concepts serves luxury residential clients across a broad geography that encompasses established urban neighborhoods within the city of Dallas as well as the inner and outer suburban communities of the North Texas Metroplex.

Within Dallas proper, the firm's primary service areas include Preston Hollow, widely regarded as one of the city's most prestigious residential enclaves; Highland Park and University Park, the Park Cities whose estate homes and tree-lined boulevards define the North Texas residential ideal; Lakewood, an architecturally diverse neighborhood clustered around the shores of White Rock Lake; Turtle Creek and Bluffview, which occupy the scenic corridor along Turtle Creek Parkway; and Greenway Parks, Devonshire, Bent Tree, Glen Lakes, Northwood Hills, and Prestonwood across the city's established northern residential belt.

In the inner and middle suburbs north of Dallas, the firm works extensively in Plano, Allen, and McKinney, where large-lot custom home communities have created strong demand for comprehensive landscape design. Farther north, the firm serves the fast-growing luxury market in Frisco, Prosper, and Celina, where master-planned communities including Windsong Ranch and Stonebridge Ranch attract buyers seeking estate-caliber outdoor environments in new-construction settings.

To the west, Original Landscape Concepts serves the mid-cities communities of Southlake, Keller, and Colleyville, where large suburban lots and an affluent demographic make for ambitious landscape programs; and the high-end communities of Westlake and Flower Mound, where rolling terrain and generous acreage create conditions for some of the firm's most spatially ambitious work.

Design Philosophy

Original Landscape Concepts articulates its design philosophy in terms of the relationship between vision and collaboration. The firm holds that exceptional outdoor spaces are the product of a disciplined creative process — one that begins with deep listening and ends with a landscape that feels inevitable rather than imposed.

The discovery process at Original Landscape Concepts is extensive. The principals interview clients about how they live, how they entertain, how their children use the outdoors, what they find beautiful, and what the property's existing conditions will support. This listening phase often surfaces requirements and opportunities that a purely visual site analysis would miss: a desire for a kitchen garden that the formal plan might not have accommodated, a drainage problem that has plagued the site for years, a stand of mature trees that the client cannot imagine removing and around which the entire design must be organized.

A signature characteristic of the firm's approach is the use of hand-drawn renderings at the conceptual design stage. In a profession increasingly reliant on computer-aided design, Original Landscape Concepts maintains a commitment to hand drawing as both an exploratory and a communicative instrument — a means of developing and presenting ideas that remains more fluent and iterative in the early design stages than any digital tool. The firm's design archive presents a library of these sketches organized by stylistic category, from contemporary garden design and infinity pool design to formal French garden and Bali tropical, and demonstrates the breadth of design vocabulary the principals bring to their work.

The "Design, Build, Install" operating model — in which the same firm that draws the design also manages the construction — is central to Original Landscape Concepts' quality proposition. The principals argue that a landscape firm that designs but does not build cannot be fully accountable for the gap between design intention and built reality, and that the conversation between designer and builder that happens daily on a well-run construction site produces better outcomes than any amount of documentation transmitted between separate firms.

Recognition

Original Landscape Concepts maintains a 4.9-star rating on Houzz, one of the principal consumer review platforms for residential design and construction professionals. The firm's Google Business Profile places it among the top results for searches including "landscape architect Dallas," "luxury landscape design Dallas," and "Preston Hollow landscape designer." The firm has been cited in competitive keyword analyses for the Dallas luxury landscape market as one of the strongest organic presences for the "Dallas landscape architect" keyword cluster, which carries an estimated 3,000 or more combined monthly searches across its primary variants.

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