Flatland began with a wheelbarrow, a shovel, a pair of Felco pruners, and a 1980 Jeep Wagoneer as a side gig to repay a student loan.

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Soon, the side gigs turned into a five-year project in the 1990’s, designing and managing the restoration and renovations of Oakhurst House and the surrounding gardens. Located on the grounds of Minnetrista Museum and Gardens, this initial project became enmeshed in reimagining and restoring many other aspects of the former Ball family compound on the bluff of the White River in Muncie, Indiana.

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The name Flatland refers to the landform on which our projects lie. We do not work near oceans or in the mountains; our work is in the heartland of the Midwest where the horizon stretches with trees and rivers and prairies for miles.

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We learn through exploration and curiosity. Our knowledge of nature is shaped and reshaped by exploring hardwood forests and open prairies. We learn from ditches, mud puddles, streams, and ponds. We learned from Midwestern architecture in all shapes and forms: from the Sears kit houses, Prairie-style residences, Neoclassical buildings, all the way to the high-rises of Chicago. Through our work in and around our chosen place in the flatlands, we have experienced the successes, demise, and reinvention of industrialization.

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Flatland is rooted in Midwestern urbanism, surrounded by farmland in all directions. We know the land as separated by the Jeffersonian grid, as well as we know it separated by winding creeks and rivers. We know the sound of growing corn and the mid-August humidity that lingers. We know a sky that drops 38 inches of rain a year and the smell of wet worms after a heavy rain. Winter is three weeks out when we hear the high-flying sounds of sandhill cranes in formation, migrating south, and we know Spring is six weeks away when the winter aconite shows its yellow manes.

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At Flatland, we care deeply about the communities we serve. We are passionate about water in our rivers and streams. We worry about the loss of soil, nutrients, and diverse ecosystems.

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Flatland Resources emerged from roots nourished by water that falls from the sky and anchored in land carved by moving glaciers.

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As place-based designers, we define success by the ways local communities and people thrive.

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We strive to be long-term placemakers.

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We strive to transform space into place.

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We strive to create spatial wonder.