Episode 11 | Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Transcript:
00:00:05 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
Welcome to Vision Driven with Resin Architecture, the podcast where we dive deep into the world of architecture, development, and construction.
00:00:12 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
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00:00:19 Micki Schwartz with Rudd & Co
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00:00:25 David Frew with Bank of Idaho
Advice I’d give somebody that’s presenting their case, or pitching their loan to a bank, is just to be really well prepared.
00:00:32 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
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00:00:51 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
We're excited to be here today with Jesse Buster, who is a landscape architect for Stack Rock Group, a local landscape architecture firm. There he is a vice president, a partner, and a project manager, and he's here today to talk with us about landscape architecture.
00:01:09 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Well, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. I was very humbled to have the invite extended out, so thank you for thinking of us.
00:01:16 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Tell us about your background and how you began designing landscapes.
00:01:25 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
I originally went to college to be a civil engineer, and although very necessary and exciting in its own ways I just had a hard time seeing myself being very excited about going to work every day. So I took a career assessment test and ended up seeing landscape architecture in the top three. I went and spoke with the chair of the department at University of Idaho at the time, Stephen Drown. Within a short conversation, I was kind of sold on it.
00:01:59 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
So from there we - my friends and I, who started this firm - we met up in the studio courses up there and we graduated right after like a lot of people were getting hired on early and stuff like that. We graduated right at the cusp of the downturn of the economy, so we did just a fair amount of work that we could, a little better residential design here and there, but there wasn't a lot going on. So just kind of out of survival my friend Will, who is the founder of the company, got together and just said no one's hiring. We got to make it happen. So we started out of his extra bedroom.
00:02:39 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
He had 14 years of landscape construction behind him and a couple of us had also similar experience a little bit here and there, but just the passion for design, and we wanted to make it happen. So since then we just put our heads down and started an extra bedroom and now we're on our 4th office. We're based out of Boise, but we have 4 satellite offices too.
00:03:01 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
A lot of people might not know what a landscape architect does and what their role is within a building or a normal facility. Can you give us the 30,000 foot view on that?
00:03:16 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Landscape architecture by just a loose definition is the design and planning, maintenance and management of the built system. And so integrating buildings and other facilities and infrastructure that you need on to a site. The quick thought is we get easily tossed into the category of a gardener and that's where people get really excited. Like, oh, I need you to come practice on my yard and stuff.
00:03:44 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
But there's so many scales to it. Everything from the small backyard all the way up to campus planning. Landscape architects are commonly involved with site design. So if you if you're looking at a site and you're doing the due diligence there, we can assist with that. We’ve helped with campus planning. And then just given that we're very versed in built ecological systems. We do a lot of sustainability projects, so anything that has to do with water, plants, flora, fauna, a lot of things that kind of cross over. Landscape architecture is design and planning of the built environment and natural systems.
00:04:25 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Can you go over some of the reasons a commercial project needs green space?
00:04:32 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Certainly. The majority of places when someone is going to start a project, there's going to be a requirement by whatever jurisdiction is reviewing that that they need to have green space and the reason for that is for water, for aesthetics, to help with the heat island effect (which is ultimately the sun shines and reflects off pavement and other hard services and creates kind of a hotter climate ). We use trees and plants to offset that.
00:05:05 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
A lot of that reason comes down to curb appeal and how to really enhance the building or the site around there, and a lot of places like to integrate spaces where people can gather and circulate outside, and so those are some things that we look at as well.
00:05:23 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
How does green space benefit the commercial space? How does it benefit the owner?
00:05:28 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Certainly so green space helps the owner by ultimately checking a box on the application, because a lot of jurisdictions will require it, but among the higher priorities is that it will help with curb appeal, so it looks good from the street, which adds to the community - the fabric around. Also with the user experience as you enter. If you can set a tone and an experience as you're approaching a building and it helps the experience within as well.
00:06:02 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
There's a lot of studies on how it helps worker psyches, psychological aspects and stuff like that. But there are other environmental aspects where we're dealing with water drainage. We're integrating plants that help you know the flora and fauna around. Then trees can also help with shade and help keep the climate cooler anda little more tolerable, especially in this desert climate.
00:06:28 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Architects are careful about space planning. What types of uses do landscape architects plan for?
00:06:36 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
What types of uses? So yeah, something that also excites us. Generally, we like to leave the buildings to the architects because that's their lane and we like to stay in ours. But we can help with the fabric of the site altogether if we are given the footprints, but generally we're looking at circulation where people are gathering and then some of the other site needs. So when a civil engineer says I have this much drainage, I need to deal with then if we're doing storm ponds or something like that, rather than just digging a square hole in the ground to divert the water and let it sit there, we like to get creative in that and make it a little bit more naturalistic and tie it into the site and make it a lot more aesthetic.
00:07:24 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Space is generally where what people are looking at, where they are spending time, or where they're passing through.
00:07:32 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
You guys do more a lot more than just plantings, right? That's the thing that I think I used to think, what plants do we need? Let's grab a landscape architect. They'll tell me some scientific names, and they'll throw that on a sheet that looks really pretty because your guys's drawings actually are really pretty. But I know that you guys are doing more than that. You're creating the paths. What are other elements you guys putting into a into a site plan?
00:08:05 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Anything from site design and planning. So if you have a certain square footage of a building code is going to help dictate what parking facility you need to provide, how much. So sometimes we help there. Generally we'll lean on the architect because that's more of your expertise laying that stuff out as far as circulation, so pathways. But we can get really in the meat and potatoes, everything from conceptual and very detailed site design from the beginning all the way through construction documents, but also get as far into helping out with layout plans
00:08:43 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
If we're not using a survey to actually stake points, we can help with that. Grading and drainage we help with often enough. A lot of times we'll lean on the civil [engineer] to take on that, but we will help facilitate the look and the aesthetic and the function of those a lot of times.
00:09:00 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Hardscapes and other built elements that are outside of the building. One thing that's important to landscape architects is that the building just didn't get plopped onto a site. We like to pull that building out into the site and create an experience. So if there are materials and we can start integrating elements such as like accent walls or pergolas and really pull that out and create this experience.
00:09:26 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
So a lot of those elements: hardscape, planting. Irrigation is another big one, especially in the climate like we're in. But honestly, even places where they get a lot of rain irrigation is critical because depending on what's provided, if they're tapping into potable water, they want to manage that properly. And so looking at efficient irrigation design.
00:09:50 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
And then we get a little bit into lighting, a lot of people do, and then we can get pretty heavy into other utilities that typically civil will take on. Some landscape architecture firms do get really civil heavy under the scope of landscape architecture. We like working with civil. So we try to stay away from that stuff. Just a couple other things as far we can help with furnishings and those areas where we would work with you guys on what you're selecting inside and what accommodates and blends well inside the out.
00:10:28 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
What are some of the aspects of landscape design that a business owner should consider when they start working with the landscape architect?
00:10:38 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
OK, so again, site designs always something where we can contribute in one way or another. A lot of that is just from project to project there's always a unique set of circumstances or constraints that we got to work through. So helping them avoid problems that are easy to avoid. On site constraints, you know again, drainage could be a big thing.
00:11:07 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
But really, what are they trying to accomplish? Like what type of facility or building are they providing? We want to complement that. So we want it to look good, but we want it to be a place that feels good too. So really start thinking about what it, what does it look like from afar as you approach it as you spend time there?
00:11:28 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
And then again, if we want to get a little bit further into site lighting or other elements like that that really just help it stand out because I think the goal is to create a great space that goes along with the building so make a statement.
00:11:44 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
One thing I wish that business owners would consider is maintenance. I don't think there is anything - natural or manmade - that doesn't require some maintenance. [Business owners need to think about] how much [time] they want to put in there. And you also mentioned approaching the site and the views what you want to screen, but also what you want to draw attention to, you can use landscape for both of those purposes, right?
00:12:12 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Yeah, great points that you brought up that I skipped over, but that's critical. Like what's in the site and also what's outside of the site.
00:12:21 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
On the commercial jobs that you do so like a typical office or something like that, what are some of the favorite things that you guys have integrated into your design work?
00:12:28 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Into our design?
00:12:31 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
Or that you like to integrate in. Maybe it's something that you're throwing in on everyone that you can I don’t know.
00:12:36 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Within gathering spaces, what kind of amenities are we providing? [In] this particular office are people going for more of that lifestyle approach? So are we integrating outdoor kitchens and pergolas - places where people are really excited to go and then they can have their break go outside and cook? Things like art pieces even. You know we've had the opportunity to get super creative on even art.
00:13:03 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
Like from a sculpture standpoint I would imagine?
00:13:06 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Yeah, we've helped with conceptual design, but also an example would be on a roof deck in a hotel in Boise we help just design the art piece that had different metal and tile and this product called 3form. You're probably familiar with. It's a resin product. We did some art pieces there that had lighting and
water.
00:13:31 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
They're bespoke pieces that were created just for that project? That's exciting.
00:13:35 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Yeah. So we took it all through the design process, which you know for us typically starts out with kind of pen and marker and have fun with it and then get into more of a drafting and a 3D modeling look. So that whoever is putting this into their space they know what it looks like and can actually justify investing in something like this in that design. And then we also helped largely on the kind of the construction side of stuff. So with our background it helps. A lot of times that's often a bridge that is missing. But that was just a really cool opportunity, art pieces and things like that.
00:14:20 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
That's a fun thing to think about when you're designing a landscape, that art is part of that. Again, I think a lot of people do think of plantings and not something as exciting as art or as necessary as irrigation and
drainage.
00:14:38 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
What problems can arise in green spaces and you alluded to some of those earlier, and how do you recommend avoiding those?
00:14:46 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Well, one of the larger problems is maintenance and management like you had highlighted. It's unfortunate to see some places that had really thoughtful design and maintenance didn't occur afterwards and so it just gets overtaken again. So that's always something to really consider, especially when you're approaching the project. Do you have someone that's going to be taking care of it? We generally don't like to burden with more labor. Lawn is a good example there where if we can reduce the amount of mowed lawn. That doesn't mean we have to get away from lawn, but we can look more like a meadow grass or something like that that only has to get touched at a few times a year. But I think the problem is generally come from whatever constraints we're working with.
00:15:39 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Budgetary: that always plays in when try to be very sensitive to those kind of things. The building is the place where people are spending time and that's what makes the money. We're here to accommodate the look and the function of it. But on the other side of it there's going to be constraints.
00:16:00 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
We'll talk about noise of a highway or visual blights of neighbors or positive views to site grading [which] always has its challenges. What's a good way to deal with changes in topography? With that comes again drainage [which] kind of seems to be the theme of the talk, but ways to work around those.
00:16:28 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
We were talking during our - every week Resin does an office critique where we come together with all of our staff and we all put eyes on a couple of the projects that we're working on so that we can brainstorm and get everybody's ideas about better ways to do things or problems that they we might want to fix before we get too far into design. When you're talking about using plants to decrease noise (and you had just brought that up) what's the threshold for being able to have a reduction in noise with plants? I had actually heard it was something like 50 feet. Is it 50 feet of foliage?
00:17:07 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
It depends on what sound you're trying to abate or attenuate. If it's a highway, you're better off with a wall or something like that. And then the plants will - I don't have any actual figures for that, but common practices would be to integrate a wall or a solid fence plus plants that will help soften it. And also aesthetically soften it.
00:17:29 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
We use berming and you can still use a combination of those elements there, but definitely something, especially if you have like a residential project that's coming in. For whatever zoning allowance that you can have where people are living next to some sort of industrial site, there's going to be noise and stuff from that and so do what we can. It's never a perfect solution, but it's we're just trying to mitigate it as much as possible.
00:17:53 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Yeah, it helps. You talked about berming. Do you want to define that for us?
00:17:59 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
A berm is just a mound that would continue along at, let's say, a street or a perimeter of a property. But basically you're just piling up dirt. You see them everywhere. Visually they can help define the site. They can help with the views. Like we're talking about also with sound.
00:18:24 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
And also with that drainage, right?
00:18:26 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Yeah, they can. There are ways that you can use them in that.
00:18:34 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
So technically Idaho, or at least where we live in Idaho, is considered a desert. What principles do you use to deal with Like what water wise principles are you using?
00:18:50 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Xeric landscape is something that's getting more well known, and it ultimately waterwise planting. So you're looking heavy into native plants, but also adaptive plants that don't [have] high watering needs. So when we look at our plant palette, which is just the arrangement of plants or the selection of plantings that we're putting in, we're always kind of checking on those figures. Unfortunately, where we're at in the dry land arid ecosystem ecology not everything's super aesthetic in the way that you want it in your yard or next to your commercial building.
00:19:29 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
There are times when it works. That's why a lot of times we'll have to lean on more of an adaptive plant palette. You know, plants that aren't necessarily native to here but do well. So xeric is leaning on those plants that we only use irrigation for a little bit to get them established and then a lot of times those systems are temporary.
00:19:52 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Generally, it's about three years for most plants to get established, and they're going to do well to go from there. On the watering side of things, we push heavy on irrigation and what that means. And so lawn obviously is something that a lot of people like because you can use it. It provides a nice clean look, but the downside of it [is] there's maintenance, but a lot of water too.
00:20:16 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
In terms of irrigation, we generally have a standard coverage. But again, if we can encourage people to integrate lawn where you're actually using it. Let's say if you have a campus, let's just keep it where the sports fields are and some of like the entry approaches. Then all these other areas you can do more of a dry land seed mix or something like that. That's when [you] mix in native wildflowers.
00:20:44 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
The benefit there is you're going to reduce maintenance and water. A really cool example that we had, we did a sustainability project with HP in Boise was a pilot one we did with them and that was the purpose of the project was to help them reduce those costs, but also create a better space and their ROI (the return on investment) was 18 months versus the three years that we projected.
00:21:09 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
But the really cool aspect of that is the biodiversity there just exploded and they have beekeepers on site and that next summer their honey production tripled. And so just the fact that they're not spraying, they're not cutting all this down.
00:21:27 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Yeah, that's really exciting. You talked about the establishment period for native plants and for some of the more adaptive plants that you're using. I know that there are irrigation practices that help limit [water use]. I mean, there's all kinds of irrigation: flood irrigation (which is very water intensive)to other options. Can you talk a little bit about some of the smaller office spaces and the different irrigation systems they might be using to limit water?
00:22:06 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Yeah, definitely. So flood irrigation, that's typically more agricultural. And so we wouldn't necessarily be able to get that type of approval, but that's a good point to bring up just so that people are aware, because that's actually something we've been asked like can we do this?
00:22:14 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Definitely not.
00:22:22 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
The answer is no, because you know it's state mandated, so they do want a built-in underground irrigation system. So for lawn, you typically have pop-up sprays, but in the planter beds where we're doing these xeric and native plantings, you can have a point source where you're running a drip line in there and then a little spaghetti string that provides the water straight to it. We generally lean more towards what's called Netafim, and it's just a porous pipe that you just go and run a grid and then it just evenly disperses the watering.
00:22:58 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
We have a lot more success there because a lot of times you don't know if you have a problem with irrigation until the plants are struggling. So if you can get a little more even distribution. But the benefit of that is that you're not spraying a bunch of water over large distances like you would in lawn. It's a lot more controlled. It's actually underneath the mulch and stuff like that.
00:23:20 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
So then you're not losing it to what's called evapotranspiration. Basically, when the sun's out, and if you're watering, then you're not losing water to evaporation. It just helps reduce and you can control it as well. So a lot of municipalities, a lot of jurisdictions, are looking for something like that, especially if they're being hypersensitive to how much water you're using.
00:23:43 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
With the Netafim, as you mentioned, it's a drip pipe that has holes. It's like water hose. But instead of just having a hole at the end with a lot of water coming out, it has holes all along 6, 8, 10 inches. It varies where the water drips out. So we have hard water here. How do you keep it from developing deposits that plug those holes?
00:24:09 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
How do you keep it from calcifying and stuff like that? There are different valves and stuff that we use to help mitigate that. There will be a flush valve, which we'll have iat the end of the pipe.
00:24:20 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Is it like a filtering system?
00:24:28 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
You can kind of help clean and run it and stuff like that. Sometimes people will amend it, but there's not a lot that you can do with that. It's just kind of watching it [for trouble]. It's not as bad as maybe your shower head gets where it'll build up, but it's still a factor, and yeah, I mean it's something that we have to deal with.
00:24:48 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
You mentioned a grid too. Do you run this drip in a literal grid or is it more like a winding back and forth snake?
00:25:00 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Yeah, more like, more like that. So we would just kind of run it back and forth like a zigzag I guess, but just so that it's even and stuff. If you were doing point source, you just need to run that lateral line to each plant, just close enough and then pull the spaghetti string over there. It’s just a trade off in what material and your approach that you're doing it. But so far the Netafim provides more even distribution. Therefore, it's a lot more successful for plantings.
00:25:31 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
I know some people like the emitters on the spaghetti string because it decreases the weeds. That's brought up because it's just water to that one plant that you want.
00:25:41 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
I guess continuing to talk about plants for just a moment. We chose to live in Idaho and we have long winters or maybe people would say that we have short summers. With all the off season in terms of like plantings, how do you work with that? What are you doing to try to still make an awesome environment in the I guess the shoulder seasons?
00:26:12 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Provide a little more seasonal interest? On the built things, I mean it comes down to some of the features that we talked about before, whether they're walls or you can integrate boulders, you know something just with the interest. But in planting design, I'm sure it's very similar with buildings that you're thinking about: form, color, texture, size, all those principles, you have to think through.
00:26:38 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
In our area and a lot of others, you've got deciduous versus evergreen. So does the plant keep its foliage or its needles or not? Yeah, there's a a tree called the western larch (the tamarack) that does actually lose its needles, which is pretty cool if you're not aware. But we're used to fall clean up with leaves and very few trees that grow in Idaho keep their leaves all year.
00:27:04 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
We lean heavy on cool form and other colors. There are dogwoods that have red twigs to provide a really nice contrast against the snow or against building textures and colors. There are plants like a contorted filbert that just has crazy branching structure.
00:27:25 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
And staghorn sumacs that have little - I forget what they're even called, but they they're just this little thing that goes up, a little spike looking thing.
00:27:38 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
So plants that have cool form without overdoing it. Not going and picking out every cool plant from the nursery and throwing it in so that nothing stands out and just you just feel like you're in Doctor Seuss land. Then lean on whatever green plants that we have here. So a lot of times those are conifers, but we do have some plants that have leaves that will keep them. So just kind of a mixture there.
00:28:00 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
One thing I love that I've seen around town are the grasses, ornamental grass. I think Idaho is pretty good about using grasses in innovative ways, and they will often keep their seed heads over the winter and then you get a little bit of the flowing form and movement.
00:28:20 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
So those are something that we would consider winter interest and we try to encourage the maintenance crew to leave those till spring cause you got to cut them down anyways if they're a perennial. A lot of those you'll see are annual, so they have to be replaced every year. But the perennial ones have to be cut down and allow the new growth to come in. If you can get someone to leave that throughout the winter, even if it's yellow and brownish, it still has its aesthetic appeal. But like you're saying like the seed heads can be really cool.
00:28:50 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
I think of it as golden. How do we design landscape spaces that get used year round? We are designing a project right now that has a rooftop garden. How do you make that successful or what other spaces do you use? Some of the resorts I've noticed have heated sidewalks. What kind of tricks are you pulling so that you can use the landscape for more of the year?
00:29:24 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
Yeah. So definitely what you're leaning into is what is the climate of the area. Some of the projects in Montana that we have where we have very short summer and very short shoulder seasons where it's usable, are we encouraging people to get out there in the frigid air? So we lean on, you know, heaters and stuff like that. But how do you encourage people to go use it? Use a space outside?
00:29:51 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
You have to provide that comfort and then if you consider all the design aspects, you know something called Prospect Refuge, where people like to have a feeling of shelter and protection and look out across. Think about yourself standing under a tree looking across the meadow versus someone that's walking across the field or something. They feel a little vulnerable.
00:30:16 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
So you'll use elements or the building to create those spaces where they feel good. Access, you know, proximity of things. If you're doing a hotel and you're providing hot tubs and it's cold and icy outside and you don't want to make them walk too far, you know? So just being thoughtful in those things and just being practical too, you know, like in other parts of this state, it stays warmer longer. And so we can lean on the weather. But I would say weather's largely the biggest constraint.
00:30:46 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
Hypothetically speaking, if we were doing a project that we wanted to integrate like a green wall or other like actual live foliage indoors, would you guys be the ones that we talked to if it was indoors, and what does that process look like and like. Are there recommendations? I know that there's benefits to having plants inside. Our office has a lot of plants inside, but I've heard of the benefits. Sell me on it.
00:31:24 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
There's definitely a a health aspect in the psychology of someone if there's plants, or if there's some aspect of nature, studies will prove that like people just feel better and their quality of life is better. There, one example that we did is called the Boise Cascade Building in Boise and it's an interesting building. So you walk up to it and it's just got these pillars and this giant column in the middle and then this huge patio that has stairs wrapped away all the way around it, but the way that it's built is that first floor as you go up those steps, it's all glassed in and so when they were redoing the inside of that where it's more of just a lounge waiting area and a coffee shop, just a huge indoor space. They actually approached us about helping design indoor gardens for it. We work all over the nation, so we're familiar with a variety of plants that don't do well here.
00:32:21 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
But to be able to think about if someone spending time inside and we're bringing outside in what does that mean? And we actually got to create some planters like ground level planters versus pots, you know, because you can go to a nursery or somewhere where they provide plants and they'll give you the parameters that you need to consider: the plant itself, how much sun, how much water? But when it's going a little bit further, like a green wall or something unique and eclectic that you're doing, there's a lot more to it. So to answer your question, yes, we love to help on that kind of stuff. It's doable.
00:33:00 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
It just takes a little more research on what the site is offering itself in terms of sun aspect, how much space do we have? And you know what kind of temperature control and how are we getting water and stuff to there so that we're not leaning on people to pour those. But green walls, there's a lot of different types there. Generally we're looking at vines or something that can be grafted up there and there's a variety of those systems however big you want to go. You've seen them up a multistory building as small as just a railing. So a lot of different ways to go around it so it would just generally be site specific and project specific.
00:33:41 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
As a landscape architect, when would you like to be brought in on a project? Are there advantages to having you join the team (the design team) early in the process?
00:33:53 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
The encouragement is it's easier to pull stuff out than it is to add it in, so it's generally better in terms of like an interdisciplinary approach if we can come in early. Let's say a client approaches you. Here's their building idea. Here's the site and they've got a couple of things that they thought through.
00:34:12 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
So when you're running through site design and stuff like that, it's really beneficial to the client and to the project and the flow of collaboration for us to come in early just to kind of hash out some of those ideas and then that way we can help them again like avoid problems that could be easily avoided and talk about different opportunities that maybe they hadn't thought of if it's whatever amenity or space that they're creating. But to answer specifically the earlier the better and then we can hold back and we can get really involved. And then just kind of plug in when it's more time to kind of stay in our lane , fill that role in the process.
00:34:55 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
We ask our all of our guests this last question, what's the one piece of advice you'd give somebody that's looking to build a commercial space?
00:35:05 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
What's one piece of advice that you would tell someone wanting to build a commercial space? I think what impact are they wanting to leave. I think a lot of people, especially if this is their first time or maybe the only time they're doing it, it's going to matter a great deal to them. So what kind of impact do they want to be? Do they want this to be kind of part of their legacy or is this just a means to perhaps making money or whatever it becomes, and so really cast the vision. Dream big and then let us all help all disciplinaries kind of jump in and see what we can do to make that happen. Don't be scared to dream and we can help keep it practical, but make it great too. Go for it and let it be something special as a part of the fabric of the community.
00:36:06 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Well, Jesse, thank you so much for coming and speaking with us about landscape architecture. If somebody wants to reach out to you or Stack Rock Group, how would you recommend they do that?
00:36:17 Jesse Buster with Stack Rock Group
We have our website which is stackrockgroup.com. We have social media: Instagram, Facebook. We're all over on those platforms. My personal e-mail is jesse@stackrockgroup.com so very long really need to integrate an acronym for that and then the digital mediums will provide phone numbers and stuff like that.
00:36:58 Greg Croft with Resin Architecture
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00:37:11 Jamee Moulton with Resin Architecture
Remember, at Resin Architecture we are dedicated to teaching and learning and are committed to helping business owners like you navigate the exciting journey of building. Stay tuned for more episodes where we'll continue to bring you engaging conversations, expert insights, and actionable advice to fuel your real estate aspirations
