Meet Our Landscape Designers & Installation Team
Exterior Design Landscapes is Colorado Spring’s premier landscape design company, offering luxury landscape design and flawless installation. Please take a few minutes to get to know our team.
meet the owners & designers
OUR EXPERT LANDSCAPE DESIGNERS:
Richard and Kristy Hooper owner operators together in the landscaping industry for over 40 years. They became business partners in 1983. In 1988, they sold their business to a large nursery in Omaha, NE to fulfill their dream of moving and living in Colorado Springs, CO. Since that time, Richard and Kristy have created hundreds of landscape designs and installations in Colorado Springs and the Denver area.
Meet Richard:
Richard grew up in the nursery business and started working for Marshall Nurseries on 700 acres when he was just 11 years old. He learned valuable skills from old nurserymen who have since passed on, but Richard he has kept their expertise alive. Richard is an Expert at Landscape Design who has received many awards over the past 50+ years.
He has an extensive background and knowledge in Landscape Architecture, Horticulture, and was a licensed Arborist for many years who developed a preventative solution to an iron deficiency that plagued the Pin Oak Tree population in Omaha, NE. He was honored by the city as an arborist who saved the Pin Oak Trees from extinction.
Richard taught landscape design to college & university students and mentored many young entrepreneurs who wanted to follow in his footsteps. Decades later, many of the same entrepreneurs are still in business and continue to call and discuss new designs and ask for his advice.
Richard has a strong belief that a landscape designer must first work in the field to be considered as a skilled tradesman. Hands on experience is required in almost any skilled trade except landscape design. Richard feels that hands on apprenticeship should be required in the landscape industry as well.
Richard is one of the most experienced landscape designers in the industry, and he will continue to design for homeowners as long as they see the value in his designs. No design is too small, and no design is too large.
Meet Kristy:
Kristy began working with Richard in the landscaping business in 1983. She started on the ground floor as an office administrator and provided customer service to residential and commercial customers.
She quickly advanced by learning the types of trees and shrubs that were available and how they grew once they were mature; accurate tree and plant placement along with spacing is vital a landscape that will last for 20 years or more.
Kristy started working on the installation crew in 1985 to gain a better understanding of the process of installation in the field. At that time, she was one of the first and only woman in the Midwest to work as a professional in the landscape industry. Although it took awhile, she was able to gain the respect of the men in the industry after she, alone, laid 5 pallets of sod on a steep embankment while the rest of the crew were at lunch. It was a turning point in her career.
Kristy has been designing landscapes for the past several years now, but spends most of her time at the nursery doing what she loves most; hand selecting shrubs and trees for each landscape installation. She provides excellent communication to our customers and keeps them informed on their landscape progression. She is the main point of contact for customers.
One of our greatest achievements together:
Together as a team, Richard and Kristy were asked to exclusively design and install landscapes for (12) twelve custom homes by (12) different custom home builders on the same street for The Parade of Homes in only (7) seven days. Exterior Design Landscape crews worked by the light of the sun and used floodlights by night. They completed all homes beautifully in one week; it was a once in a lifetime successful endeavor.
OUR INSTALLATION CREW
Our Installation & Construction team are experts in the landscaping and maintenance business. They have been installing our landscapes for several years now without any employee turnover, and we consider them to be the best and the most consistent team members that we have had in over 40 years.
The difference between a good crew and a great crew is that a good crew digs and plants but really has no idea of what the final creation will look like until the installation is complete.
A great crew is a team who can actually see the vision that the landscape designer has created for the homeowner by just looking at the landscape design. We have a great crew! When our crew has completed your installation, you will want to tell others that they have turned your dirt into art.
Contact us today for a consultation.
If you own a home in Colorado Springs, Monument, or the surrounding areas, and would like a landscape design by one of the best designers in the landscape industry, call Exterior Design Landscapes today. Your Expert Designer is only a phone call away. Below are just a few of the many communities we serve:
- Sanctuary Pointe
- Grandwood Ranch
- Forest Lakes
- Timber Ridge
- The Broadmoor Area
- Flying Horse
- and many more!
