About Verte Clara · New York, NY

We draw landscape plans. That’s the whole business.

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No installation crew, no plant nursery, no showroom. A small desk on Madison Avenue, a plotter, and a habit of drawing things a contractor can actually price.

Most of our work is for the kinds of places New Yorkers actually have: brownstone backyards, rowhouse yards, co-op terraces and rooftop decks.

Get a flat-fee quote Call (929) 215-2912

Who we draw for

  • Brownstone owners
  • Rowhouse owners
  • Co-op terraces
  • Rooftop decks

Why this exists

Design shouldn’t cost a truck roll

Illustrated drafting desk with a half-finished landscape plan, scale ruler and a potted fern
Fig. 4 — The desk. A plan sheet, a scale ruler, a fern that is still alive.

The usual way to get a yard designed in New York is to hire a designer who visits, measures, returns, and bills you for every trip. For a 20 × 40 ft backyard, a lot of that fee is travel and meetings.

We cut those out. You send phone photos and measurements; we draw. The saving is real. So is the cost: we can’t see the buried rubble or the corner that floods in March. We ask about those things directly, and the plan marks what your contractor should check once they’re standing in the dirt.

If a trade-off exists, we tell you before you pay.

We’re also not a landscaper. We don’t dig, plant or take a cut on materials, so we have no reason to specify more than your yard needs.

See the four packages

How we work

Three house rules, and what they cost you

  1. Draw to scale or don’t draw

    Every sheet is ¼ inch = 1 foot. A mood board can’t be priced, a scaled plan can.

    The catch

    Scaled drawings need real measurements. We’ll ask you to pace out the yard if you have no survey.

  2. Price it flat, before we start

    You get a number in writing. Half to start, half when the files go out. Card or ACH.

    The catch

    A flat fee means a size cap. Past the square footage in your package, we re-quote instead of absorbing it.

  3. Specify plants that survive here

    New York is zone 7b, with road salt, clay soil, wind on roofs and shade at the bottom of a brownstone canyon. We pick for that.

    The catch

    That list is shorter and less exotic than a Pinterest board. We’ll say so when your favorite won’t make it through January.

Scope, said out loud

What we do. What we won’t.

We do

  • Scaled planting plans and plant lists with sizes and counts
  • Hardscape layouts: paving, edging, steps, fence and gate lines
  • Drainage and lighting sketches in the Full Set
  • Notes on what co-op boards usually ask to see
  • One markup round in every package

We don’t

  • Visit your site, or sell you a visit
  • Install, dig, plant or supervise a crew
  • File permits or sign off on rooftop loads. Your engineer does
  • Earn commission on plants or paving
  • Take walk-ins. The studio is a desk and a plotter

Talk to the desk

Send the yard. Get a number.

Email a few phone photos and a rough size and you’ll get a written flat quote. No sales call unless you want one.

Evenings by appointment. Weekend emails get answered Monday.

Request a quote info@verteclara.com
Desk
169 Madison Ave Ste 2500
New York, NY 10016
Hours
Mon–Fri 9:30am–7pm · evenings by appointment