_History

 

 

"Always Getting It Built."
Edward D. Stone, Jr.


A Vision
While serving as an Air Force fighter pilot in the war, Edward D. Stone, Jr. founding partner of EDSA, got to see the many natural wonders of the world. Astonished with the natural beauty of the land and unhappy in his current profession of architecture, Mr. Stone decided to pursue Landscape Architecture. After his three-year term in the service ended, Mr. Stone entered the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and earned a Masters degree in Landscape Architecture.
 

 
   
 

The Early Years Struggle for Survival
After graduation, Mr. Stone headed for Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While earning only $100 a week working for Fred Stresau, a local landscape architect, Mr. Stone decided he could earn the same amount of money working for himself. With considerable fear and trepidation, Mr. Stone left Mr. Stresau and opened an office in his garage in Pompano Beach, Florida. Some weeks he earned $100 and some weeks he did not. Luckily, Mr. Stone had a dear friend who was a client and did not object to project reviews in the garage. However Mr. Stone quickly realized that if he were to have other clients, he would need at least some rudimentary office space. Mr. Stone located some inexpensive walkup office space on North Ocean Boulevard, over a fairly boisterous saloon.
     

The Firm Matures and Grows
Florida turned out to be a great place for landscape architects, eventually. Gradually Mr. Stone began to obtain some projects that had a site planning component, which gave him a sense of professional satisfaction. Mr. Stone was fortunate to discover extraordinary talent--Dave Armbruster, Joe Lalli and Doug Coolman--all currently Principals of the firm.
The firm successively began to gain momentum. EDSA was given some exciting opportunities to be consultants to and collaborate with Mr. Stone’s father, Edward Durell Stone, a distinguished architect who practiced from offices in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. These exciting times opened the firm to a number of different projects that would not have been easily accessible to a firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. EDSA grew and prospered while continuing to add wonderful and talented staff.
 



Dave Armbruster



Joe Lalli



Doug Coolman


"Traditionally Landscape Architects did the bidding of either architects or large engineering firms. It occurred to me some odd years ago that in a lot of these projects the Landscape Architect was the more logical team leader. We decided to make a very deliberate effort and from the outset we were successful at it."

Ed D. Stone, Jr.
EDSA’s Future
Today EDSA is over 220 employees working from offices in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida; Los Angeles, California; Beijing, China and Baltimore, Maryland.
EDSA has a good balance of public and private planning and design projects, both overseas and domestically. Mr. Stone is thrilled with the transition to the second generation and now the third, and comments, "I’m convinced that we have a very bright future."