Landscape Firm Wins Prestigious Design Awards

By Nancy K. Crevier

The LaurelRock Company of Wilton, a family-owned and -operated business founded by landscape architect Dickson DeMarche and his son, Burt DeMarche of Newtown, was awarded local and national awards at premier competitions in 2010.

Connecticut Cottages & Gardens magazine presented LaurelRock with the 2010 Innovation in Design Award (IDA), for the redesign of an entranceway and landscaping of a property in Weston. The makeover, which included a pool and spa, patio, fire pit, and barbecue for outdoor living space, was showcased in the July/August issue of Connecticut Cottages & Gardens.

LaurelRock was also the recipient of the Connecticut Cottages & Gardens magazine IDA in 2009.

In late October, the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) presented Burt DeMarche with a Grand Award for environmental improvement of a property in Garrison, N.Y., at the Annual Environmental Improvement Awards Ceremony and industry conference in Louisville, Ky. LaurelRock transformed a heavily wooded landscape with extensive ledge outcroppings into a comfortable retreat, adding a pool and spa, stone paths, and a woodland garden to complement the contemporary-style home on the property.

LaurelRock principal Burt DeMarche was also inducted into the PLANET Trailblazers at that time, a group of “green” industry leaders “who mentor PLANET member companies by providing guidance, tips, and solutions to business challenges,” according to a press release.

PLANET comprises more than 3,000 “green” industry service provider companies and suppliers across the country. The Environmental Improvement Awards Program recognizes independent plantscape professionals “who execute superior projects. PLANET strives to increase public awareness of environmental improvement through contracted landscaping, lawn care, and interior plantscaping and encourages the consistent use of quality materials and workmanship.”

Sustainable landscaping is part of the core principal of LaurelRock, said Mr DeMarche, to enhance, to give back, and to improve the environment as a whole. “Greenscaping” became more of a focus for the company nearly five years ago, said Mr DeMarche, who is LEED (Leadership’in Energy and Environmental Design) accredited.

LEED certification, awarded to high performance “green” buildings, is currently more common for commercial designs, he said, but has started to come over into residential projects, thanks to the Sustainable Sites Initiative that sets parameters for residential sites to be more “eco-friendly.”

Examples of eco-friendly designs are rain gardens, which use redirected rainwater, and green roofs. “You can plant the entire top of a roof,” Mr DeMarche said.

In addition to implementing those principals in the commercial and residential properties designed and built by LaurelRock, the company donates time and material to smaller projects, such as one undertaken at Merryhill Childcare Center on Queen Street. LaurelRock also volunteers a day of service to a project each Earth Day. “We believe we have to be doing our part. Who better to lead the ‘green’ movement than those who are in the ‘green’ business?” he asked.

Burt DeMarche graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1990 with degrees in horticulture and business, worked for his father and for Young’s Nursery in Wilton, and then joined his father, recreating the Dickson DeMarche landscape design company as LaurelRock, a design/build and maintenance firm, in 1993. “We now have our own crews for ‘softscaping,’ the plant and soil part of landscaping, and subcontract out our ‘hardscaping,’” Mr DeMarche explained.

“I give full credit to LaurelRock’s incredibly skilled design/build team, whose collective imagination and hard work continues to transform the most challenging of properties into environmental and aesthetically beautiful residential landscapes,” said Mr DeMarche in the press release. “I am especially honored to share LaurelRock’s successful design and environmental strategies with other firms nationwide through PLANET’s Trailblazer mentor program,” he said.

The LaurelRock Company services customers throughout Fairfield County, and is rapidly expanding into Newtown and surrounding towns, said Mr DeMarche. For more information about The LaurelRock Company, visit www.laurelrock.com.