IN TOUCH WITH THE LAND
AGROSTIS, INC.
Taking cues from impeccable aesthetics and diligent land planning, Agrostis, Inc. is one of Jackson Hole’s premier landscape architecture firms. Owners Heath Kuszak and Jason Snider established their firm in 2008 to provide a full range of professional landscape architecture and land planning services with distinct attention and focus on client satisfaction.
The foundation behind Kuszak and Snider’s professional expertise is integrity and ingenuity. Kuszak’s professional career in Jackson is extensive as he worked at engineering and landscape architecture firms in the area where he provided services from drafting to managing large projects.
In addition, he also has considerable experience working on high-end residential design and construction, large-scale resort master planning, habitat creation and restoration, golf course design, and subdivision planning. “We’re a small firm,” explains Kuszak. “However, our strength lies in our involvement in every phase of the process from construction and design to permitting. Our message to clients is never lost in translation or communication because we don’t have layers of management. We ensure a design all the way until the end.”
Although Snider spent the early part of his career working on large-scale master plans for urban and recreational development at a nationally recognized planning firm, he eventually landed in Jackson. Spending several years as a project manager, he oversaw the design process from conceptualization through construction implementation on a broad range of land planning and design projects. “Landscape architecture is a unique profession,” says Snider. “We create our jobs, find resources, and identify and then solve problems. We must constantly be creative. It’s extremely gratifying to have opportunities to exhibit the role that landscape architecture can play.”
The Agrostis team is committed to helping clients realize a vision and to create spaces that inspire their clients to live outdoors more. They listen to clients and discuss extensively what they want to do before designing and implementing a plan. But once they begin the design process, they are efficient.
“OUR MESSAGE TO CLIENTS IS NEVER LOST IN TRANSLATION OR COMMUNICATION BECAUSE WE DON’T HAVE LAYERS OF MANAGEMENT. WE ENSURE A DESIGN ALL THE WAY UNTIL THE END.”
–HEATH KUSZAK AGROSTIS, INC.
As a leading Wyoming landscape architecture firm, Agrostis offers top-notch planning services and designs for hardscapes, water features, fireplaces, and fire pits. In addition, Agrostis provides planning and specifications for outdoor kitchens, spas, and pools as well as ponds and streams, other habitat enhancements, and native landscape restoration. Most of Agrostis’ projects to date are residential, but they are open to and interested in public projects. About their work, Snider says, “It’s not just about landscape design, it’s an opportunity to explain how we can help people realize their goals creatively.”
Experts in quality design and problem solving, Kuszak and Snider are especially attuned to the procedures and processes involved in home subdivisions, which have become more complex with stricter codes. Kuszak explains how Jackson Hole is experiencing a surge in “boxy, modern, contemporary, minimal houses,” which are mostly wood and metal construction. “We like to work on those structures because it’s a challenge to incorporate them into the native landscape,” he says. “It involves cleaner lines and harder edges. In traditional homes, there are more loose organic forms in the landscape.” Snider adds that they enjoy working on new construction and working with more contemporary materials or modern interpretations of traditional materials.
Besides new materials, Snider and Kuszak are extremely conscious of the region’s care for its natural habitat, using native plants, stone, and riparian vegetation, which are true to Wyoming and Teton County’s environment. “People who come from the East coast, Texas, and California are used to a very different flora and fauna than what exists in the Intermountain West,” explains Kuszak. “There are not many nursery-available tree species here, but we rely on those species and shrubs to provide structure to the landscape, which we complement with perennials, flowers and reclamation practices to create a unique design.”
All of their knowledge and experience matters when Snider and Kuszak are presenting design solutions because they can each speak clearly and intelligently about the micro and macro concepts for their designs. “Many of our clients are second-home owners and absent for the process,” reveals Kuszak. “They rely on us and the rest of the design team to manage their expectations. We do a great deal of project management to make sure it all happens properly—it’s one of our strengths.”
Professionally licensed in Wyoming and Idaho as well as CLARB certified, Agrostis specializes in a broad range of landscape architecture and planning services, as well as site selection, property evaluation, permitting and project management. Agrostis also presents documentation to its clients for all projects through conceptual plans, and construction documentation, and is then diligent about overseeing construction to ensure the integrity of the design—it’s a full service landscape architecture firm with the added benefit of abundant knowledge and experience.
