The Earth Design team was awarded and successfully produced a restoration Master Plan for the Furman University Lake in Greenville South Carolina. The lake has been declining in water quality for years due to an over abundance of waterfowl, pollutants, and sedimentation.

Design solutions include marsh islands, shoreline repair, rain gardens, boardwalks, and bioengineering. The Master Plan included rendered plan view drawings, working drawings, sketches, plant lists, construction details and budgets. The Earth Design team is currently assisting with implementation.

Hatcher Gardens & Woodland Preserve is a wonderful green oasis in the growing urban city of Spartanburg.

The gardens are a result of over thirty years of effort by 93 year old Harold Hatcher. Earth Design developed a complete master plan bringing cohesion, restoration and gardening into a public setting. The Hatcher Garden master plan features a visitors/education center, amphitheater, ponds, streams, children’s gardens, outdoor classrooms, and areas for relaxation and contemplation. Its value as an educational resource and place to find serenity will only continue to grow.  The gardens will become focal point for the growing urban community.

Earth Design partnering with Dr. Jeffery Beacham and  LPA Engineering of Greenville, South Carolina, are developing a Master Plan and Landscape Design for the City of Greenville Department of Parks and Recreation and the North Main/Rotary Park Planning Committee that will include stream and greenway restoration; design of a vegetation planting plan that includes native species and control of exotic species; grading and landscape design features for erosion control; an interpretive nature trail; a potential jogging loop; and a stone bridge design. 

The project team also will develop and obtain the US Army Corps of Engineers wetland permit required for the stream restoration work.  The goals of this project are to restore and enhance this degraded city park to an environmentally sustainable system that will feature low maintenance native vegetation and naturalistic structures and trails. 

The design will include interpretive plaques and information providing education opportunities for two local elementary schools and area residents.  The project team is responsible for assisting the city in facilitating input from stakeholder groups and identifying funding sources and partners for implementing the Master Plan.

The Earth Design team successfully designed the League Academy Tree Garden in Greenville South Carolina. The project was awarded by Trees Greenville a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and protection of trees in Greenville under a grant through the South Carolina Forestry Commission. The scope of our work included walking trails, educational nodes, signage and lesson guidelines. The landscape consists of trees, shrubs and perennials that are native to the southeast and offer great educational opportunities, aesthetics, and wildlife values for the students of League. The League Academy Tree Garden shall serve as a model for future projects and environmental education. 

The Prince George Environmental Education Center is an 800acre site in Georgetown, South Carolina that Earth Design in concert with the University of South Carolina Development Foundation designed a comprehensive master plan, which highlights sustainable building products and earth technology.

The elements of the design included the location and layout for the vehicular and pedestrian circulation, boardwalks, and observation decks, outdoor classrooms and siting of the education center. To facilitate a more efficient design process GPS technology was used in the field to locate or define many of the design elements. Deliverables included a site development, plan, layout plan, and construction details and specifications and raw and processed GPS data.