Chris E. Hecht, born in Vienna, Austria to American parents serving in the Diplomatic Service, grew up in Mill Valley, where he showed an early interest in both music and landscape construction.  Working over many summers with his dad to make their steep, densely overgrown backyard into an inviting garden retreat, Chris very naturally gravitated toward landscape design and construction as a profession.  At the age of only 16 he built his first substantial solo landscape construction project, a brick entry stair and patio located on Rainbow Lane.  This project proudly stands today, accented with a generous growth of moss, looking as if it has been there forever.

Having played trombone throughout high school, he went on to study music composition and theory at UC Davis, and then completed a Masters in Music degree at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.  Back in the Bay Area, he and his wife bought a fixer-upper house in Oakland, (listed as a “handyman’s dream”, it proved to be all of that) and started the landscape design-build company in 1981.  The two pursuits, landscape design and music, have proven to be complementary interests, a sort of yin and yang in his life.

As the business has grown, so have his two children, both of whom are launching into college simultaneously, keeping Dad’s “nose to the grindstone”.  While immersed in running the business, he manages to study jazz trombone, working with mentor Wayne Wallace at the JazzSchool in Berkeley, and to write original music, which he describes as “modern classical,  that people actually listen to…..and like”.  He writes mostly for a capella choir, with many performed works, and has been awarded several commissions, most recently from the Piedmont Choirs, directed by Robert Geary, a new work in celebration of their 25th anniversary.

Chris maintains a fresh, positive attitude toward his work, as each successive project either embodies a new and different challenge, or suggests new combinations of more familiar design elements.  As he says, “It’s always exciting.  In bringing a concept to life, situational, design, and logistical problems usually arise, provoking an innovative perspective. The whole company always relishes these twists and turns.  For me, my co-designer Sarah, and my crew, variety is the spice of design and construction life.  We never build anything like the same project twice”.