Humphreys Launches Landscape Division

Humphreys & Partners' CEO Mark Humphreys tells GlobeSt.com his company has been working toward bringing a landscape architect on board for awhile. "It's hard to do these types of expansions when you're in a hot market, like we were two years ago," he comments. "No one is interested in leaving. But now's a great time. Just like our developer clientele is looking for distressed properties, we're looking for people and companies to come under our umbrella."

Not that the Scottsdale, AZ-based Studio Sprawl required much convincing to join up. Humphreys & Partners regularly outsourced landscape architecture work to Studio Sprawl. When Studio Sprawl principal Dan Erlandson had the idea of coming on board, Humphreys was willing to listen. "The more we talked about it, the more it made sense," Humphreys says. "We used to just give away that landscaping business, unless the owner asked us to select someone, then we'd give it to Studio Sprawl. Now we have a quality-level service that's in-house."

Humphreys says the new division, along with his company's interior design division, is targeting different markets by working with clients to reposition already built properties. While those types of jobs are not necessarily sought after by architecture firms, "if you are buying a property, or you currently own property, the landscape and interior design can get tired," Humphreys says. "Repositioned landscape and interior design can change the entire look of a property."

Humphreys & Partners' next step is to bring a civil engineering firm on board. Humphreys acknowledges that civil engineering is one component his company is missing. With Humphreys & Partners handling master plans ranging from thousands of acres to whole islands located in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, a civil engineer or a company of civil engineers would be a welcome addition Humphreys hopes will happen soon.

"Right now, it's dating time," he comments. "We haven't fallen in love with one girl yet. We're looking at a few firms and folks that work at firms. We're testing things out to see how we'd work with them and whether they want to be part of the Humphreys & Partners family."