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FALON LAND STUDIO

landscape architecture and public art

  • About
  • Our Process
  • Landscape Architecture
  • Public Art
  • News
  • Contact

Menil Bookstore Pocket Park

Project design 2024-Present

Breaking ground in 2026

Working closely with the Menil, we have created a new pocket park that stitches together outdoor gathering spaces and enhances the gateway and renovated buildings of the much-loved Bookstore and Bistro. Custom site elements complement the outdoor dining areas and create lush gardens for reading a book, playing the ukulele, having picnics, and meeting up with friends.

We sourced a specimen Live Oak Tree that has been field grown on the deep Blackland Prairie Soils just northwest of the Houston Metro. The specimen Live Oak will be a placemaking tree that provides shade and beauty, and complements the Menil’s campus urban canopy of large oaks.

Menil Bookstore Renovation Team: KinneyMorrow Architecture, LAM Civil Engineers, Steve Anderson Arborist, Steve Anderson Tree Farm

XO Pocket Prairie

Project Type: Residential Garden

Houston, TX

2020, constructed

In collaboration with LOJO Architecture

Landscape Contractor: Telloc Lifescapes

The pocket prairie flanks the corner of an urban neighborhood just north of Downtown Houston. Currently in the establishment phase, the pocket prairie was planted with a mix of nursery-grown containers, custom native seed mixes, and live root plant saplings for the best establishment of wildflowers and grasses. The prairie is dynamic each day as it catches the sun and shade against the grey metal of the house facade. Throughout the year it blooms in yellow, white, lavender, and pink against a backdrop of finely textured wild grasses with cloud-like seed heads dancing in the wind.

Nature Playgrounds Toolkit

Project Type: Landscape Research

Partners: SPARK and the Powell Foundation

The nature toolkit for Houston public schools is a research project that creates design ideas and best management practices for fostering a connection between kids and the natural world through the design of playspaces in public school parks.

Natural Elements Integration: Incorporate natural materials such as wood, rocks, and water features to create a sensory-rich environment that stimulates curiosity and imagination.

Play Structures: Design custom play structures inspired by natural forms to provide opportunities for climbing, balancing, and imaginative play.

Educational Signage: Install informative signage throughout the playground area, educating children and caregivers about local flora, fauna, and ecological principles, fostering environmental awareness and stewardship.

Accessible Pathways and Interactive elements: Ensure accessibility for children of all abilities by incorporating smooth pathways, ramps, and sensory-rich surfaces, promoting inclusive play experiences. Provide inclusive design strategies for neurodivergent kids.

Shade Structures: Integrate shaded areas using natural elements such as pergolas, native trees, and vegetation, providing relief from the sun and creating comfortable gathering spaces for families.

Champions

The landscape for the new Champions Golf Course pavilion focuses on natives that blend seamlessly with the natural setting of the course.

Collaboration with Rivers Barden Architects and Studio WAL

MidMod Art Garden

Project Type: Private Garden

Collaborators: Dillon Kyle Architects, Gandy Lighting Design, CLW Landscape, SL Anderson Urban Arborists

in progress, 2020-present

A whimsical garden of custom topiary sculptures and curvy patterns punctuated with lush tropical foliage. This project features a curvy boomerang pool like a Thomas Church kidney bean but with sleeker curves. A mix of groudcovers and gravel gestures create a patterned landscape.

Agriculture and Nature Park

Work in Progress

Partners: Alief ISD and SPARK Park

The agriculture and nature park serves as a neighborhood green hub, where nature, food, and play converge. It is designed to foster hands-on interaction with the landscape, supporting both ecological learning and community well-being.

Falon Land Studio’s design reflects a deep commitment to:

Ecological regeneration

Community ownership

Sensory-rich, place-based learning

The park becomes a living classroom and a neighborhood anchor—where nature is not just observed but actively experienced, cultivated, and celebrated.

Casita Gardens

Residential landscape design project in collaboration with McIntyre and Robinowitz Architects.

A new construction project in Houston’s Woodland Heights, the garden design joins together two house lots for an expansive garden.

The garden flows like a natural extension of the home — unfussy, approachable, and sensory-rich. Curved paths lead you through softly textured planting, dappled shade, and sunny clearings. Every corner invites curiosity, yet the whole space feels calm and cohesive.

Garden on North

Project Type: Landscape Architecture, Garden Design, Residential Garden

Services: Design through Construction Administration

Collaborators: Rivers Barden Architects

Year: 2021-present

STEAM Plaza

Project Type: Interactive playspace and STEAM learning area

Collaborators: SLA Architects, River Bend Nature Center

in progress, 2021- present

This project transforms a blank concrete terrace into an engaging artsy STEAM plaza play space for kids. There will be oversized butterflies, interactive musical instruments, fort building, gardening, and more at this renovated nature educational center in North Texas.

Eastham Thomason Park Playspace

Project Type: Landscape Design

Eastham Thomason park is large park in the center of Huntsville, Texas. We were engaged to enhance the new playspace with interpretative nature elements. An imaginative fort-building and rock circle is sited at the confluence of the major walking trails and custom signage prompts kids to be curious about the nature that surrounds them.

Tinsley Park

Project Type: Community Park and Nature Playspace

Partners: SPARK Parks

Location: Southwest Houston

The Tinsley Park is a community space and nature playspace for the students at Tinsley Elementary School. The project aims to create an innovative and engaging recreational space within the community park, fostering a connection between children and the natural environment. This project seeks to reimagine traditional playground concepts by integrating elements inspired by nature, promoting exploration, creativity, and physical activity in a safe and inclusive environment.

Outdoor classroom seating mosaic by Falon Land Studio. Mosaic stone animal artworks by Reginald Adams, local mosaic artist.

Allston Garden

Project Type: Residential Garden

Collaborators: Content Architecture, Haskins Design Build, Merge Fabrication

2021, completed

Winner, Texas Society of Architects Design Award, 2022

Winner, AIA Houston Design Award, 2021

Tucked into the Houston Heights neighborhood, this garden is a low-water landscape augmented by a specimen Japanese Maple Tree and native grasses. The back features a small pool and zoysia lawn with custom metal planters and trellises.

Photography: Leonid Furmansky

River Bend Nature Center

PROJECT TYPE: Specialty indoor learning gardens and exterior landscape design

SERVICES: landscape design, indoor planting support, plant selection, soil specifications

2018-Phase One

COLLABORATORS: Produced in collaboration with SLA Architects for the River Bend Nature Center Phase One Renovations in Wichita Falls, Texas

Metro Esplanades

34th Street Affordable Housing

Project Type: Multifamily Housing Landscape

Partners: Avenue CDC, Living Paradigm CDC

Consultant Team: NDA Architects, Jones Carter Civil Engineers

For a new multifamily housing complex on 34th Street, the design is distinctively drought tolerant for a resilient landscape of native plants and crushed rock mulch. The goal with this project is to produce a landscape that’s recognizably sustainable and creates a larger impact on the surrounding urban context. Thus, the street medians are also being adopted as part of the project to tie-into a resilient landscape strategy.

Med Center Prairie Landscape

Project type: Landscape Planting design and resilient maintenance practices

Partners: Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO)

In the second phase of work with METRO, the TMC transit plaza gets a landscape overhaul to create a robust pocket prairie that absorbs water and provides a new engaging lush landscape of native plants. Featuring dozens of different native species of wildflowers, grasses, and shrubs, the landscape plan reimagines what a transit hub could look and feel like.

Our maintenance practices guide for the transit center focused on how to create a more comfortable microclimate with changed pruning practices and the addition of many shade trees.

Gulfton Park

Project Type: Landscape Architecture, Public Art, Community Engagement, Social Practice

Size: 1.67 Acres 

Location: Gulfton Neighborhood, Southwest Houston

Project Description: Community Design collaboration with Open Architecture Houston, Connect Community, and Houston Southwest MultiServices Center

Work in Progress, 2017

Resort Village Master Plan

Master Plan completed 2017, currently in construction

Size: 35 Acres

The Resort Village Master Plan in the Florida panhandle is creating spaces for people to connect to a pristine natural environment on 35 acres of barrier island property. Nestled within the SGPOA on St. George Island, the Resort Village encompasses a kayak launch, recreational courts, and a series of hiking trails. 

BAIPP Arts and Culture Walk

PROJECT TYPE: Park Artwalk Competition Proposal

LOCATION: Bastrop, Texas

SERVICES PROVIDED: Concept Design

SIZE: 22 acres

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: 

Overall Concept

The concept weaves together cultural and natural history of the Bastrop community by creating spaces that celebrate the people, geology, plants, and ecosystems of the region. The integrated spaces are built from local natural materials. Each space celebrates an aspect of the Bastrop community.

Celebrate People: Heritage Post Site Marker, 14 Total

The site markers, shown on the schematic plan as orange rectangles, are four-sided wood posts made from reclaimed Pine beams. Each side of the beam has carved text relevant to the languages, people, and history of the four prominent cultural groups that have lived in the Bastrop area. The four cultural groups are Native Americans, Mexicans, Africans, and Anglo Settlers. Each of these different peoples have a distinct culture to be represented each on one side of the Pine beam. Examples of text for the heritage posts might include poetry, stories, place-names, famous people, and significant dates. Together, each four-sided Pine beam represents a facet of the cultural and ethnic history of the region. The Heritage Post Site Markers are located at identified “gateways” throughout the Walk. The first posts flank either side of the walkway into the park and the additional posts mark sequenced spaces along the walk.

Celebrate Ecosystems: Texas Hill Country Wildflower Meadow and Texas Mesquite Savanna Boardwalk

The existing wildflower meadow is enhanced with seeded and transplanted native wildflowers and grasses including Sunflower Goldeneye, Velvetleaf Senna, Little Bluestem, Pink Evening Primrose, Rain Lily, Zexmenia, White Mistflower, Hill Country Penstemon, Four-nerve Daisy, and Winecup. These flowers and grasses are native to the region and create a colorful textured canvas for integrating additional permanent public artworks and sculptures within the park.

The Boardwalk is a subtly elevated wooden deck walk four feet wide that arcs through a planting of Texas Mesquite trees and Little Bluestem grasses. It is meant to be a discovery walk adjacent to the main path of the park that allows visitors to experience a slice of the Mesquite Savanna ecosystem.

Celebrate Geology and History: Limestone Plaza with Curved Seating

Using locally sourced limestone, a plaza with a curved seat wall is integrated into the path between existing mature trees. The plaza stones and stone seating area are designed to integrate various types of limestone rock relevant to different periods in Texas geologic history. The stones have embedded text about the geology endemic to the Edwards Plateau, the Lost Pines, and the formation of Limestone rock related to the prehistoric conditions of Texas.

Celebrate Plants: Loblolly Pine Grove Planting

As an homage to the special stand of “Lost Pines”, the loblolly pine grove is a loose grid of Pinus taeda trees planted in a drift from the limestone plaza and continuing north to the Wildflower Meadow. The pines should be planted from seedlings by volunteers as a way to teach the public about reforestation and forest management practices.

Celebrate People: Terraced Amphitheater

The amphitheater is a gathering space for watching movies, spoken-word performances, and contemporary plays. The terraced space is graded into the existing land to form a half-circle that joins the existing park pathway. Near the main path and parking area, the amphitheater is positioned to host lively arts events that celebrate today’s arts and cultural programs. 

Johnson Park

PROJECT TYPE: Wilderness Park Design, work in progress

LOCATION: St. George Island, Florida

SERVICES PROVIDED: Ecological design, concept design, ecosystem design, native plant palette design

SIZE: 5 acres

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: How do you design access into a pristine wilderness while respecting the beauty and remoteness of the place? You work with a light hand and design with minimal materials: wood, sand, crushed shells, water, fire, native plants. These designs in progress for a barrier island in the Florida panhandle create spaces for watching bald eagles and wading birds in Apalachicola Bay and for discovering colonies of rare native plants growing on the island's interior. Boardwalks connect to sloughs within the Bay and to interior freshwater ponds fed by rain. The goal is to connect people to nature for everyday enjoyment.

 

SGI Vision 2025

The SGI Vision 2025 is spearheaded by the St. George Island Civic Club members to create a plan for the commercial district on the island. The plan creates a framework for adding pedestrian and bike amenities, new recreational opportunities, flood mitigation, native plantings throughout the district, and a cohesive natural character for the beach community.

Houston Heights Oasis

Our Houston Heights Oasis garden is a tropical paradise inside one of Houston's oldest neighborhoods. We make a completely immersive oasis in this small, modern garden with boldly textured plants and materials. 

Building Architecture by Anderson Canyon

Warm Springs Garden

Project Type: Residential Garden

Collaboration with Content Architecture

Houston, Texas

The warm springs garden is a modern native garden of drought tolerant plants that host butterflies, bees, and birds. Designed using our native prairie landscape plant palette!

St. George Island Master Plan

Project Type: Landscape Master Plan

Coastal Florida, 2023

Services: Landscape strategies for planting, maintenance, and long term resiliency.

The masterplan process aims to enhance the unique natural character of the island landscape through resilient planting and maintenance strategies.

St. George Island in the Florida panhandle is a unique barrier island landscape with a multitude of ecosystems such as maritime forest, coastal uplands, marshes, and coastal dunes. These habitats of the Florida Gulf Coast are home to endangered sea turtles, abundant bird species, and a dazzling diversity of native plants.

Richmond Canopy Plaza

Project Type: Corporate Courtyard and Public-Private Park

Location: Houston, Texas

Services Provided: Concept design while employed as a Landscape Architect at Sasaki*

*Landscape Architects: Sasaki Associates, Landscape Architect of Record: Office of James Burnett. 

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Large existing Live Oak Trees were preserved during the tower construction and provided the framework for the design of a plaza and park-like setting. Native ferns create a lush blanket of plants in the shade of the 100+ year old Live Oak Trees. Benches set in crushed limestone paths are used daily by office workers for eating lunch. The modular pavers create a driveway and drop off location for the tower that's integrated with the parking garage and garden areas.

Arlington National Cemetery Expansion

Project Type: National Cemetery and Memorial Arboretum Design

LOCATION: Arlington, Virginia

Services Provided: Lead Plant Designer for the 30 acre expansion project while employed as a Landscape Architect at Sasaki

Project Size: 30 acres

Project Description:

Arlington National Cemetery is an iconic landscape and a national memorial space for veterans. The design for a 30 acre expansion of the cemetery was focused on creating an arboretum of specimen trees in the burial ground and gardens and pathways that navigate the steep slopes of the site. Several hundred species of trees, shrubs, ornamental grasses, vines, and bulbs were used in the design of this project. 

TMC Transit Plaza

Project Type: Plaza Design, Ecological Design, Micromobility Design, Urban Design

Client: Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County

Design and Construction Documentation, 2019

Menil Bookstore Pocket Park

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XO Pocket Prairie

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Nature Playgrounds Toolkit

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Champions

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MidMod Art Garden

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Agriculture and Nature Park

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Casita Gardens

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Garden on North

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STEAM Plaza

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Eastham Thomason Park Playspace

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Tinsley Park

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Allston Garden

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River Bend Nature Center

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Metro Esplanades

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34th Street Affordable Housing

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Med Center Prairie Landscape

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Gulfton Park

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Resort Village Master Plan

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BAIPP Arts and Culture Walk

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Johnson Park

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SGI Vision 2025

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Houston Heights Oasis

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Warm Springs Garden

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St. George Island Master Plan

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Richmond Canopy Plaza

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Arlington National Cemetery Expansion

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TMC Transit Plaza

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