Our Firm
Kerns Landscape Architecture, a group of Asheville-based designers integrating landscape architecture, planning and urban design into one collaborative practice aimed at creating meaningful spaces.
We take pride in working with clients to develop a compelling vision, carrying that vision through design development, to the finest details, creating exceptional places. Our projects vary widely, from high-end private communities and residential estate design to public streetscape projects and parks. Across that spectrum, we view collaboration with our clients and like-minded design professionals as a key component to achieving project goals.
We are guided by a vision that are inspired by designs that evoke quality, timelessness, and by those that create them.
"It is the incredible care and concentration you feel in even the least of the drawings, the pride, the obvious love - this passion in combination with an overriding insistence on order, on quality, that we of this very different century must inevitably stand in awe before. You feel what these people felt for their work and you cant help but be drawn to them."
A description of the original Brooklyn Bridge engineering drawings found in a municipal carpentry shop in 1969, nearly 100 years after the bridge was constructed.
Excerpt from The Treasure from the Carpentry Shop, David McCullough
As an architect creates with metal, stone, mortar and wood, landscape architects create with constantly changing natural elements. Those of us with a passion for this art form delight in the limitless palette of materials.
We believe our work should enhance and complement the natural landscape while being mindful of sustainability. We embrace the unexpected, and every new project is our favorite.
Kerns LA is a team of design professionals based in Asheville, NC. Our practice integrates landscape architecture, planning and urban design into one responsive practice aimed at the creation of
meaningful places. Kerns LA has extensive experience providing land planning and landscape architecture services for clients in the ruggedly beautiful natural areas of Western North Carolina and throughout the southeast. We also collaborate routinely on the design of notable communities throughout the country and world with Vita Planning and Landscape Architecture, an internationally-renowned design firm based in San Francisco, California.
Kerns LA approaches projects from a contextual viewpoint, investigating relationships between site, environment, and program. Our team brings an exceptional level of energy and commitment to each project and places a high value on a process of inquiry and design that responds directly to each project and each client's needs.
The range of our practice is from planning and landscape design for large-scale, high-end private community developments to public streetscape, park projects and residential design. We have worked on a variety of project types and scales, and we view collaboration with clients and associated professionals as key to achieving project goals. This collaborative process, along with our design approach and technical abilities, translates into successful and innovative built environments. Kerns LA takes pride in working with clients to develop a compelling vision for a project, and to carry the vision through design development to the finest details, resulting in the creation of unique, exceptional places.
We find that most of our projects are “special situations” where a new market opportunity, difficult topography, a sensitive environment, a historical/cultural context or a complex approvals process requires an innovative approach.
What distinguishes our firm is our deep familiarity with community development, our extensive experience with difficult yet spectacular properties, and our ability to view the project from a large-scale, master planning level.