K. Dakin Design - Landscape Architecture - Garden Design

K. Dakin Design was established in Boulder, Colorado in 1997. Specializing in environmentally friendly landscape architecture with an emphasis on native plants K. Dakin Design is a full service company that takes a project from concept to completion including focusing on details like potted plants, furniture, lighting, and garden art. Principal Karla Dakin, MLA, has completed a diverse array of residential, commercial and public projects in the Rocky Mountain region and around the country. She recently designed the rooftop garden for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver and is currently collaborating on a pocket park for the Whole Foods flagship store in Boulder, Colorado.

Dakin believes the practice of landscape architecture is a multi-faceted process that takes into account many factors including: specific needs of the client (how will they use the space? are there small children? pets?), site conditions, architecture, surroundings (that may include unattractive neighboring houses), and budget. "My residential design process is intimate and guides a journey of discovery to find the garden that fits a client's individual needs," says Karla. With commercial and public work, there are additional design considerations of the audience and how they use public space. There is always a story, whether individual or collective that informs the design. The narratives of corporate or civic personalities enhance public landscapes. In the end, collaboration is vital to the process.

Dakin combines her landscape architecture expertise-she holds a masters degree in landscape architecture from the University of Colorado, Denver--with fifteen years of experience in the art worlds of New York City, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. Her work in the Soho galleries of Anina Nosei and Paula Cooper, 2AES, a nonprofit, architecture gallery in San Francisco which she founded, and participation in the early years of the 18th Street Arts Complex and High Performance Magazine in Santa Monica provided the foundation for her unique ability to integrate art into any landscape.

In recent years she has continued her education by completing classes in green walls and green roofs-she is certified in the latter-and biodynamic and master gardening, as well as teaching garden design and architectural theory. She is routinely called upon to lecture on contemporary landscape and art, creates landscape installations, and does volunteer work with Permacultura America Latina in Brazil, an organization devoted to sustainable agriculture and landscape.