Joe Lutz Designs

The homeowners requested a planting design that would compliment the architecture of their well crafted home. Ornamental trees, flowering shrubs, drifts of perennials, & boulders were carefully chosen and placed to achieve this design.

The area of the property prior to renovation included an unusable sloping lawn. Inspired by the client’s love of French gardens, this newly created outdoor space provides a place for outdoor entertaining, as well as a beautiful garden scene viewed from the dining room of the home. The garden is well used and much loved.

We spent a year together planning the garden—visiting gardens, attending lectures on French gardens, and sharing images of gardens in books and on-line.

This garden underwent a complete renovation with a very strong horticultural focus. Overflowing beds with a rich selection of trees, shrubs, and perennials for this lovely “Gardener’s Garden” were planned in close collaboration with the owner. Now a stop on the Maryland Horticultural Society tours, the garden is well loved and carefully tended by the owner and her family.

I was hired by Parks and People Foundation to develop an outdoor reading garden in conjunction with a new library opening within the school.

The outdoor space consists of three circular benches, each designed with a different radius to accommodate varying class sizes, as well as outdoor music classes. A grove of native Dogwood trees were planted throughout the reading garden to provide students with shade and close contact with nature.

I worked closely with the school staff during the design of their new outdoor space.

I had the opportunity to design an outdoor learning garden for a public school in Baltimore City. The purpose of the courtyard garden was to prepare students participating in a new agricultural program for future careers in horticulture. The site consisted of a large mound of soil with overgrown vegetation and asphalt paving. I was presented with the unique challenge of incorporating the existing soil mound in the design. I thought of the terraced rice fields in China and how the sculpted topography is not only functional but also visually remarkable.

Recipient of the Maryland/Potomac Chapter ASLA Award

In June 2010, the Rosalie Island Potomac River Waterfront Community Park opened to the public. The park consists of a four-acre park on Rosalie Island adjacent to the Potomac River, and a 23,000 square-foot elevated pedestrian bridge spanning Interstate-95. Overlooks at each end of the bridge provide dramatic views of the Potomac River and Alexandria, Virginia.

While working at Mahan Rykiel Associates on this project’s design team, I assisted in designing a park on Rosalie Island, an overlook at each end of the elevated pedestrian bridge, paving patterns for the project, and the green roof system.

I was the lead designer for the planting design of the elevated pedestrian bridge, which was inspired by the natural serpentine forms of the adjacent Potomac River and the surrounding Chesapeake Bay landscape.

The work below was performed while at RGS Associates. Being on the design team at RGS Associates for this memory care courtyard was an incredible experience and I was so blessed to be a part of this project from its initial conceptual drawings. The director of the memory care facility and I were asked to speak on the history, theory, design, and therapeutic benefits of healing gardens at the Leading Age PA Annual Conference.

The home is located in a historic neighborhood in Northern Maryland. Prior to this landscape renovation, the backyard consisted solely of a concrete pad outside of the living room and a gently sloping lawn. I assisted in planning the pool location, the patio spaces around the pool, a retaining boulder wall, and an extensive planting design

Fern Valley is located at the United States National Arboretum. As a member of the design team at Mahan Rykiel Associates, I assisted in designing a new path system with bridges and overlooks to exhibit the Fern Valley Native Plant Collection.

From the 1920’s until the 1960’s, Pennsylvania Avenue was a prominent center of culture and entertainment in Baltimore City. The Royal Theatre on Pennsylvania Avenue was well known and Billie Holiday was a regular performer.

The original Billie Holiday plaza was dedicated in 1985. Since then, the statue had suffered decay, while high walls adjacent to the sidewalk created safety issues.

I was a member of the design team at Mahan Rykiel Associates, the landscape architecture firm responsible for the plaza’s re-design. Conceptual plans were submitted and approved by the community and drawings were prepared to guide the construction of the plaza.

This senior living community is a meticulously planned 48-acre campus with views of the rolling countryside and rich woodlands. While a designer at Mahan Rykiel Associates, I was involved in the planning and design of the landscape setting for the community. The primary purpose of the landscape was to offer places and experiences throughout the community for the residents to enjoy the natural beauty of their surroundings.

While a project Landscape Architect with RGS Associates I completed the conceptual design through construction drawings for this new entry sigange.

This garden was such a joy to work on. The home is a really great 1960’s rancher and the family wanted to re-think the front garden as a ‘hang-out’ space to eat, chat, entertain, and say hello to passing neighbors. The owners are an artist/craftsman (hence the wonderfully detailed pergola) and an artist/writer.