Building in St. George? Then you know what July does to a pool deck with no shade. And you know the shade is the first thing value engineering crosses out, because on paper it looks like an extra. We’re the landscape architects who plan the outdoor space first, because down here the outdoor amenity is the room that leases the building.
Shown: Dixie Tech campus, Tech Ridge, St. George · Built, with Method Studio
You’re going to check, so here’s the straight list.
Dixie Tech, on Tech Ridge in St. George, is built. With Method Studio, we did the campus master plan and the landscape for the first building. The campus won a 2021 ASLA Utah Merit Award for general design, and the master plan won a 2016 ASLA Utah Merit Award.
We were the landscape architects on the project team for Vista School in Ivins, a K-9 school with a performing arts center, also with Method Studio. It was built in 2022 and won a 2023 UC&D Most Outstanding Project for K-12. We were on the team for Campus View Suites too, student housing for Dixie State (now Utah Tech). Phase I is built, and it won a 2016 UC&D Most Outstanding Project for multifamily.
Then there are the concepts: a CTE high school courtyard for the Washington County School District, and two luxury homes, Akoya Pearl in Desert Color and Setting Sun. All three are concepts.
What’s not on the list? A built St. George hotel or resort. We don’t have one yet, and we’d rather tell you than let you find out.
Resort, hospitality and multifamily amenities in St. George
We’ve seen it play out. The building gets designed, the interiors get the budget, and the outdoor amenity gets designed last. Then the bids come in high and value engineering goes after the shade structures, the trees and the lighting. What’s left is a pool deck that sits empty from noon to sundown.
In the desert that’s the whole game. Guests and residents judge a place by whether they can sit outside, and in St. George that comes down to shade, water and what happens once the sun drops behind the red rock.
So we flip the order. We plan the outdoor amenity first, as the room that leases the building, cost it before we draw it, and fight for the shade through the bid. Resort, multifamily or campus, the order’s the same.
See the hotel and resort work →Luxury homes in St. George
You came for the light, the rock and winters you don’t have to shovel. Then the site plan shows a pool, a patio and a lot of hot, bare ground between them.
We design the outside with the same care as the house: an arrival that feels like a welcome, shade where you’ll actually sit, a pool you can use in the middle of the afternoon, and lighting for the hours you’ll spend out there once it cools off.
Akoya Pearl, in Desert Color, and Setting Sun are two of our St. George home concepts. If you’re building, bring us in while your architect is still placing the house on the lot.
See the luxury home work →Local conditions
Four things come up on every desert project we look at. None of them are reasons to shrink the idea. They’re reasons to bring us in early.
Shade is an amenity in its own right, so we place it first: structures, trees and building shadow mapped to the hours people actually use the space. Paving and seating get picked for how hot they run, because a gorgeous deck nobody can stand on barefoot isn’t doing its job.
Every drop has to earn its place in the desert. We put water where people feel it, at the pool, a fountain or misting at the lounge, and keep the planting desert-adapted and water-wise everywhere else.
A lot of desert living starts when the sun drops behind the rock. Lighting, fire and seating decide whether a space fills up after dark, so we design the night view as carefully as the day one.
The setting already does a lot of the work. Our job is framing it: views held open, materials and colors that sit right against the rock, and planting that looks like it belongs here.
Project types
Pools, spas, shade and the arrival, designed as the reason guests book. Our hotel and resort work lives on one page.
A campus master plan and first-building landscape on Tech Ridge, and a school courtyard concept for the Washington County School District.
Shared outdoor space residents use every day. We were on the project team for Campus View Suites in St. George.
Desert homes where the outside is planned as carefully as the house.
Recognition
Awards go to the whole project team. These are the projects we were on.
FAQ
We’re a landscape architecture firm that designs resort and hospitality outdoor spaces, and we work in St. George. Straight answer, though: we don’t have a built St. George resort, and we won’t pretend we do. Our built work in the area is the Dixie Tech campus, plus school and student housing projects where we were on the team. Our hotel and resort work is on our Hotel and Resort Outdoor Spaces page.
Yes, and it’s the kind of brief we like most. In the desert, a resort’s outdoor amenity lives or dies on shade, water and what happens after dark. We plan those first, as the reason guests book, and cost them before they’re drawn so they survive value engineering. We don’t have a built resort here yet, so ask us how we’d handle yours and judge the thinking.
Dixie Tech on Tech Ridge: the campus master plan and first-building landscape, with Method Studio. The campus won a 2021 ASLA Utah Merit Award, and the master plan won one in 2016. We were also landscape architects on the project team for Vista School in Ivins, built in 2022, and for Campus View Suites, Dixie State student housing (the school is now Utah Tech), where Phase I is built. A CTE high school courtyard for the Washington County School District is a concept.
Yes. Luxury homes are half of what we do. Akoya Pearl, in Desert Color, and Setting Sun are two of our St. George home concepts. Both are concepts. The best time to call is while your architect is still placing the house on the lot.
Shade first. We map it to the hours people actually use the space, then pick paving and seating for how hot they run. Water goes where people feel it, the planting stays desert-adapted and water-wise, and lighting and fire make the evenings work, because that’s when a lot of desert living happens.
Earlier than feels natural. The best time is schematic design, while the site plan, grades and big outdoor moves are still open. In the desert that also means before the building’s shadows and the shade budget get decided for you. Second-best time? Now. We’ve joined projects late before and made it work. We’d just rather build the wow in than bolt it on.
This is where most outdoor amenities lose. They’re designed last, so they’re the easiest thing to cut, and in the desert the shade usually goes first. We work the other way. Deep Dive pins a realistic cost range before anything gets designed, so the concept is ambitious and buildable from day one. Grand visions mostly die at bid time. Ours are costed before they’re drawn.
No. Our studio is in Sandy, Utah, and we work across the state and the US. We come to the site, walk it with you and your team, and stay involved through construction.
Also in UtahSalt Lake City →Park City →
Loft Six Four · Landscape Architects · Sandy, Utah · Working in St. George, Washington County and across the US
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