Designing Women: Lloyd Fleischer

Some fifteen years ago, Trent Lloyd and Amy Fleischer met at a cocktail party in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Both women had recently moved to town—Lloyd from Alabama, and Fleischer from Alaska—and neither had friends in the area. Lloyd remembers being drawn to Fleischer’s bold pink poncho and her sense of humor.

At the time, Lloyd, an anthropology major with a master’s in landscape architecture, was working for herself, while Fleischer, who had left a career in software development research and design, was looking for a new challenge. They saw potential in partnering to create innovative landscapes: “I see things from a larger, anthropological perspective,” says Lloyd, “and Amy sees things through details.”

Today, as Lloyd Fleischer, the two collaborate on every project, from postage-stamp–sized backyards in Newburyport to grander settings on Cape Cod. The common thread, says Fleischer, is that their projects are “not just about form and function, but how people feel and engage with and experience their landscape.” To this end, they envision their clients taking a participatory role—having a cup of coffee or watering the plants—in their surroundings.

While the pair eschews a singular style, they admit to gravitating toward simple materials and then incorporating bold gestures (say a diminutive and dark backyard writer’s cottage or a striking white custom fireplace), cool juxtapositions (think tall and lush arborvitae alongside sheared boxwood spheres), and a sense of fun.

Bold and fun—fitting that it was these very traits that first drew the two together at that cocktail party way back when.

Lloyd Fleischer, Wenham, Mass., lloydfleischer.com