Samara Design is a landscape architecture studio that focuses on designing special outdoor spaces for both homes and businesses. We bring over 25 years of experience as a registered landscape architect to every project, and work throughout the greater Madison, WI area and southern Wisconsin on residential projects, and extend to the Upper Midwest for commercial landscape design projects.
Samara partners with you to create unique outdoor spaces that have the functional, visual, and emotional qualities you desire. We combine your ideas and our expertise into detailed drawings to be installed by skilled contractors.
Owner Karen Koberstein is a professional landscape architect with a B.S. in horticulture and a B.A. in landscape architecture, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is licensed as a landscape architect in the state of Wisconsin.
Years of working with talented landscape architects in a variety of settings, and a lifetime of gardening, provide her with a strong understanding of many types of landscapes: residential, commercial, botanic gardens and arboreta, historic restorations, and rooftop gardens.
Landscape Architecture Services
- Site analysis: drainage patterns, slope, existing vegetation, shade/sun, soils
- Conceptual design: intriguing design options to unify the vision, site, and architecture
- Design development: concept refinement, materials selection, paint colors, wood, brick, stone selections
- Cost Estimates: for construction and maintenance
- Construction Drawing: grading plan, hardscape plan including paving patterns and walls, planting plan, special features
- Specifications or landscape notes
- Education: the process, plants, maintenance
- Custom feature design: stone, wood, water
- Contractor recommendations and selection
- Construction observation: representation of the client
- Consulting with architects, engineers, landscape contractors, arborists, the skilled trades, and other professionals to ensure the integrity of the design
Choose a Landscape Architect
Landscape architects design and plan outdoor spaces. For residential projects we design and plan gardens, plantings, paving, lighting, retaining walls, and stormwater management. We are licensed and trained to design landscapes, not to build them; we create construction drawings used by skilled landscape contractors and masons to install projects.
Good landscape design reflects how people experience and use their outdoor spaces. It focuses both on the big picture of a site as well as the details needed for construction drawings. Landscape architects are problem solvers who strive to turn issues into creative opportunities. Sustainability was a tenet of our practice long before it became a popular concept.
A licensed landscape architect acquires an accredited degree in landscape architecture and work experience under the supervision of a licensed landscape architect, in addition to passing a series of technical exams. This license ensures that we perform at the highest level of professional standards.
Contact Samara Design about your project.