Have you ever seen a drawing for a site, or an architectural footprint, and thought "What is that going to look like when it is built?"

In the past, Landscape Architects, Architects, and Engineer's have hand drawn perspectives to illustrate how the project might

look like once completed.  Now there are many ways to do this through computer modeling.  One of these programs

available is Google's Sketch-Up.  Here are a couple of examples of a rough layout for a new residential garden.

This is not a perfect science (at least for my abilities with the program), but it does enable the designer to show the client

what things might look like through a 3-D perspective.  I have not included any of the architectural details in this model, but the array of

blocks that can be inserted into these models is vast and the detail of the model can be almost endless.  What a useful tool to

convey ideas.  This particular residential garden is set be begin costruction in fall of 2010.  It will be interesting to see the differences

of the model versus the real thing.  Of course, there will be no substitute for the texture, and placement on-site of actual materials, but

for now, it will allow some glimpse of things to come.