Kankel Conroy Rose & Hill Landscape Architecture

Recommendation of Jeanette Hill - As the leader of a committee at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto charged with the complete renovation of our church courtyard, I met Jeanette Hill when she and Steve Kikuchi (then with Kikuchi + Kankel Design Group) were chosen to design and implement the new courtyard. We are currently in the final stages of the project and Jeanette is now partner with the newly named Kankel, Conroy, Rose & Hill after Steve’s retirement. The congregational church process takes time, and we have appreciated their patience and willingness to answer all our concerns and questions along the way as they designed the space and assisted us in finding and negotiating with a landscape contractor. Throughout this process we have been impressed with Jeanette’s working knowledge of all aspects of the design and building details. Her calm, assured manner of interacting fosters productive communication. Jeanette listens to and is respectful of our values and requests. The new courtyard renovation is almost complete and already exceeds our expectations! - Diane Churchill on behalf of First Congregational Church of Palo Alto May 18, 2025

I have worked with Kikuchi + Kankel for 4 years on major high end residential projects. K+K is a very creative firm and excels in unique design, complete documentation and follow-through during construction. This is a full services firm that can take a project from really creative conceptual options through to completion promising client satisfaction. They work really well in a collaborative fashion with the Architect and the Landscape Contractor as a team to produce the best results for the Owner. Steve, Tom and the rest of the staff are so professional and fun to work with. They provide the most complete construction drawings I have seen so that no detail is left unknown. They are flexible with client changes and I can recommend them to any Owner or other Architect that is contemplating a small or large project.

I highly recommend Kikuchi & Kankel Design Group. I worked with them on 2 different projects and both projects were very different in size and scope. Both times I was very satisfied. Steve Kikuchi in particular was awesome. He is very detailed oriented not only with the design but also with the workmanship. As with every project there are hiccups and Steve addressed them instantly.

We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Steve Kikuchi and his organization. He seems to have an amazing artist sense as well as a grasp of current products and trends. Our architects and contractors have found working with him easy and he is great at integrating all elements of the project. We have used him on a number of our projects and recommend him to others.

We really enjoyed working with Kikuchi + Kankel, from start to finish. Steve was professional and a pleasure to work with. The designs were detailed and evolved as our project did. We had quite a bit of custom light design work, which turned out beautifully and matched the older features of our house that we wanted to highlight. They kept our project on track and saw it through to the end to ensure that all the finishing details were completed. We are thrilled with how everything turned out!

It took one meeting to determine K+K was the Design Group for our project! The entire process from meeting to discuss ideas to the completed project was a great experience. Along with refining the designs with great ideas and listening to what we really wanted to get out of the new yard, we utilized their ability to do contract administration which was such a key factor in the successful result. Their professionalism, construction and product knowledge, style and communication skills were impressive and made the final product exactly what we wanted----even better than what we anticipated. They were very conscientious about budget and clarity and extremely fair---to all parties involved ----throughout. Steve Kikuchi and his team also were open and able to working with the General Contractor performing interior work, really enabling the overall affect to flow through seamlessly. I would highly recommend them for any type of landscape design.

Steve Kikuchi helped us to remodel some old horse stables and a riding arena into a guesthouse and a tennis court. Coming from Japan and not knowing how the system works here, he listened to our needs/ideas carefully and helped us in each step starting from getting planning approvals and building permits from the town, finding/bidding a good contractor, overseeing the construction process and so on. We are 100% satisfied with his creative design. In addition to a guest house, a tennis hut and landscaping around the tennis court, we also asked him to redesign our property entrance with a new mail post, street number and landscaping. They all look great! His fees were fair and accountable, and he responded to various questions/problems quickly and with good faith. I can highly recommend Kikuchi+Kankel Design Group to anyone looking for a trustable, professional designer.

Kikuchi + Kankel were wonderful to work with. After reviewing three different design options with them, we couldn't be happier with the design we chose. Steve was great to work with. He had great attention to detail, he was always very thoughtful in his responses, and was very good at helping us stay on budget. He also was very helpful in keeping our contractor in line. We really felt like he had our back through the whole process.

A major arboriculture contractor (S.P. McClenahan) of the town of Los Altos Hills enthusiastically recommended KKDG (Steve Kikuchi) as one of two very best landscape architects/designers for what we were looking for. This project’s goal was to design a landscape and patio that would complement and enhance a newly built Mediterranean-style house on a one-acre hillside property. The design’s goals were to maximize utility of the house for our lifestyle, efficiently use the hillside, and require low maintenance. Steve put together a design team that not only understood our needs, but were also open to collaborating with us to bring our vision to life. Steve, Tom Conroy and the design team came back with proposals of three distinctive design concepts. By discussing each of the proposals, the team was able to capture our preferences. During the design process, we were impressed by the team’s creativity, experience, and suggestions that we would not have thought of ourselves. These back-and-forth discussions led the design team to come up with a final version that surpassed our expectations. At first, we were skeptical of its simplicity, but overtime, we started to appreciate and embrace its elegance, to the credit of Steve’s and Tom’s design wisdom. Our impression of KKDG’s approach to their work is methodical, efficient and organized. Tom, along with his team, worked up the plans’ details and helped us obtain the necessary permits for the project. Tom and Steve were very helpful and handheld us with the bidding and contractor selection process. They reviewed the bids with us and provided references of the contractor we chose. Tom’s involvement in supervising the execution of the project was critical for the excellent outcome. His depth of knowledge and prior installation/construction experience were undeniable. He was firm, direct and fair with the contractor, and his extensive interactions ensured that everything was executed according to plan. He guided us through the process with minimal stress on us, solving problems along the way and be sure that payments reflected the work done. He was always available for questions or concerns, and very responsive to any form of communication. Every morning, as we look out the front and back yards, we are delighted. We are amazed how this project has transformed our feelings on the house and its surroundings. Grandma is in love with all the fruit trees outside the windows. We are fortunate to have engaged KKDG. Our encounter with everyone at KKDG has been professional and delightful. This was one of few positive experiences we have had on projects like this.

We've worked closely with Steve Kikuchi and Tom Conroy of Kikuchi + Kankel Design Group for more than a year and have been extremely pleased with their work. From the first consultation to go over our wish list to choosing the final plan, they were very attentive and were able to fine tune the design to meet our needs and lifestyle. Because they were very specific on the materials used and equipment installed, we were assured that our outdoor dining-living room, kitchen, and raised vegetable garden would flow seamlessly with our home as well as last a lifetime as there was no room for shortchanging with sub-standard materials. Wisely we retained Tom to help oversee the project to get regular field reports on the progress of the construction, go over the contractor's billing, and to help troubleshoot any major issues. Their highly specific design and structural plans helped us to avoid some serious construction errors that would have led to huge expensive repairs in the future when the contractors were long gone.

We worked with Steve Kikuchi on a major landscaping project at our home. It was a pleasure working with him and the outcome of the project was wonderful. Steve is easy going but very professional; we liked how he handled our questions and suggestions and incorporated our thoughts into the final plan. He met all deadlines and budgets. Our landscaping gets many compliments!

Chris Kankel did the landscape plan for an outdoor patio and an enclosed atrium in our condominium. The plan was very attractive and Chris was particularly attentive to our wishes and finances. He was easy to work with, always available for any questions, and responsible after the planting to review the results.