11. Every design theme must spring forth from the unique site opportunities and constraints, the needs and desires of users, and the creativity of the team to build on these.

12. Don’t do the expected, humans live for the sense of discovery and delight!

13. Choose a firm that understands the local markets, builders, developers, and project types you are going after.

14. Realistically budget up front for site and landscape improvements since later it’s harder to reallocate dollars.

15. Design Guidelines must walk a tightrope between expressing what is flexible and what is firm. Your challenge is to make sure that they express the project vision without taking away the flexibility to improve them later.

16. Choose the LA firm that you trust enough to let them act as an advocate for your project, even with your own team.  It will extend your, and the projects reach and vision.

17. Don’t forget that at the beginning, your drawings, renderings and team are your project!  Every image the team prepares says something about the project!

18. People have a limited capacity to remember more than three design elements. Choose your spots carefully and strongly reinforce them to create memorable images.

19. Listen to the community but don’t be restrained by them in your vision. People have a hard time communicating that which they can’t imagine.

20. Spend time on the site and around the edges for ideas.  There is no substitute for site context.

21. Big Ideas can break down at installation unless someone is there to review quality, and adjust the design to the built ground.  Budget for a high level of site observation!