Surroundings is a landscape architecture and planning studio rooted in the American Southwest, where water is scarce, light is fierce, and place has long memory. Our work spans New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Arizona, and Oklahoma, from bespoke residential projects, to regional parks and school campuses, to green infrastructure and community master plans.

Founding Principal Kenneth Francis, along with Principals Faith Okuma and Joseph Charles, lead a ten-person studio built around a shared conviction that great landscapes emerge from deep listening, rigorous craft, and genuine investment in the regions in which we work. We bring over 70 years of combined principal experience, two are ASLA Fellows, and a track record of award-winning work at every scale.

We specialize in the things our region demands most: native ecologies and water-conscious planting, creative stormwater strategies, culturally resonant public space, and long-range plans that communities can actually steward. Our designs are shaped by local climate, materials, and the particular histories of the places we work in, not applied from outside.

We collaborate closely with clients, engineers, architects, and the communities whose daily lives our projects touch. That collaboration isn't a method, it's how we do the work to deliver the best projects.