Established in 1958, Lifescapes International, Inc. is a leading privately held landscape architectural design firm. The Newport Beach, California, headquarters is home base for 50 employees.
Celebrating 50 years in business, Lifescapes is well known for creating dynamic “destinations” throughout the United States and overseas. Lifescapes offers cutting edge landscape architectural design services for casinos, resorts, mixed use, urban villages, high-rise and mid-rise luxury residential communities, apartments and private estates.
Within those types of properties, Lifescapes specializes in creating all inclusive projects, including the design of all softscape and hardscape elements for entrances, pools/spas, decorative fountains, paving, walkways, porte cocheres, retail areas, restaurants-everything but the physical buildings themselves. The firm is recognized for helping to establish the “theater” for projects, in conjunction with other design and development team members.
Co-founders Barbara and current CEO Don Brinkerhoff still remain extremely active. Don, a fellow of American Society of Landscape Architects (FASLA), leads the company, focusing on establishing a project’s conceptual design.
After graduating from the California Polytechnic in Southern California in 1952, Don used his education in ornamental horticulture while working for a variety of nurseries and landscape architectural firms. In 1958, he decided it was time to form his own company
Complementing these two dynamic industry leaders is a successful team of senior principals. President and CFO Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, Executive Vice President Daniel Trust, Director of Field Services Roger Voettiner and Director of Design Andrew Kreft work in unison to create and manage the firm’s work. A team of highly qualified landscape architects, project designers and a strong administrative staff ably assist them.
Lifescapes’ first casino design project was the Cascades Hotel for Sun International in South Africa. The firm has completed 400 additional projects worldwide.
Domestically, Lifescapes’ innovative handiwork is visible along the Las Vegas Strip, which started with the Mirage in 1989. Other Las Vegas accomplishments include Treasure Island, Caesar’s Palace Garden of the Gods, Bellagio, Paris, the Venetian and its new Palazzo tower, MGM Grand Mansion, Green Valley Ranch, Wynn Las Vegas, Golden Nugget and Town Square shopping center.
In addition to creating beautiful landscape design to enhance buildings, Lifescapes’ work on the Las Vegas Beautification Project is four miles of landscaped median improvement of the Strip. The stretch is now designated the Nevada State Scenic Highway.
“I guess you can say we have had a significant impact on the look of the Strip,” says Don Brinkerhoff, “We have been entrusted by the Strip clientele to assist them with creating successful garden settings for over 20 years, and more are on the way.”
Elsewhere in the United States, Lifescapes has completed the Lumiere in St. Louis and the Borgata in Atlantic City, where Borgata’s new Water Tower hotel will open this summer. Lifescapes has set the landscape mood and design direction for 40 gaming and tribal gaming projects. These include Seven Feathers Casino, Agua Caliente Casino, Trump 29, Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Hotel, Barona, Pala Casino & Resort and the Spa Casino & Resort.
Designing for Indian tribes requires individual and specific attention. According to Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, “We are sometimes asked to include cultural heritage into design. An example would be the eagle sculpture from Seven Feathers Casino in Oregon, or using Palm Canyon as the inspiration at the Agua Caliente Casino. Tribal Councils make the decisions for Indian Country projects, as opposed to one or two gaming executives for non-tribal properties.”
A roster of future projects includes the Four Seasons Macao opening this summer and Wynn Resorts’ Encore debut in December. Looking ahead, Echelon in Las Vegas opens in 2010, as does Harrah’s Margaritaville in Biloxi, Mississippi. Lifescapes is also working on the Silverton Casino expansion, Durango Station and the Beach House, the Atlantic City project for Pinnacle Entertainment.
As the industry changes to reflect more sophisticated customer demands, additional creativity beyond the gaming halls has taken on greater importance. “The entertainment and resort operators, including astute executives within the gaming industry, have realized for many years that the stand-alone gaming activities are simply not enough to keep customers engaged on their properties for any extended length of time. We are working on vacation ownership, retail, wholly-owned condominiums and restaurant environments, providing our clients’ customers with numerous additional captivating and fun activities to enjoy during their stays,” says Brinkerhoff-Jacobs.
Lifescapes International, Inc. continues to create innovative garden settings for casino/destination resorts all over the world. The company’s work can be found in Louisiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Missouri, Oregon, California and Nevada, as well as in Canada, Greece and Asia.
For more information, contact Donald C. Brinkerhoff, CEO/Founder or Julie Brinkerhoff-Jacobs, President/CFO at 4930 Campus Drive, Newport Beach, California 92660; 949-476-8888 (office); 949-476-8854 (fax);
web site: www.lifescapesintl.com.
