Exterior Design Studio Takes on Edina

Drive down almost any street in Edina and chances are, you’ll spot a bright pink sign bearing the outline of a stork. The name behind the logo? Exterior Design Studio. Since 1978, the professional design and landscaping firm has specialized in total outdoor environments for the Edina area. These environments aren’t just typical landscaping projects; the final results are akin to priceless works of art. “It has to stir emotion,” says Mark Ritter, owner of Exterior Design Studio. “It has to be something that you pull up to every single day and go, ‘this is cool.’” Ritter’s brother Mike, a landscape architect, started the business in the late 1970s, and championed the creative design the company is known for today. Ritter began working alongside him while he was still in high school and eventually decided to make a career out of it. “I kind of fell into it,” Ritter says. “I learned from the school of hard knocks by actually doing it. I’m not the oldest guy doing this, but I’ve probably done more projects than anyone else in the Twin Cities.” In 1997, Ritter took over the business and has steered the ship full steam ahead ever since. “Each year, we get better artistically,” Ritter says. “We’re more architectural and we’re doing things with pergolas, arbors and different styles of brickwork.” This innovative creativity is what Exterior Design Studio has become famous for. “We’re extremely, wildly creative,” says Ritter. “I think the nice thing is that creativity inherently doesn’t have a cost to it.” Ritter says his projects range from $5,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, but the one constant is Ritter’s dedication to doing the job right the first time. “It has to fit the home and all be one continuous unit,” Ritter says. “It has to feel like the house was built around the landscape and just nestled in.” To achieve that, Ritter is known for his use of evergreens (which require no shearing, pruning or trimming), low-maintenance plants and perennials that continue flourishing  through the winter. “We live in Minnesota, so everything still has to look good in the winter,” he says. “You have to pull up in January and have the same reaction you do in June.”  After meeting with a client and learning their wish list, Ritter and his team (which includes an in-house mason and carpenter) devise a comprehensive plan from which clients can pick and choose. “I’m always pushing them out of our comfort zone, but it benefits them,” Ritter says. “We’re always showing the client different things that they may never have thought of.”Even after the project is under way, Ritter says the process is always evolving. “It scares everyone when I say this, but it’s really an ad lib process,” Ritter says. “The concept is developed, but the project is really created on-site.” In fact, the transformation completed by the team of 50 on-site workers is so extreme that Ritter has even had clients drive right by their house. Last October, Ritter transformed another yard that struck close to home: the house across the street from him. The couple, Chandra and Soma Shekhar, purchased the lot behind them and wanted to create a respite from their high-stress jobs. Exterior Design Studio not only created that respite, but also installed an intricate ironwood arbor over the deck, a patio area with an outdoor brick fireplace, and a pool created with Italian tile. The studio also created a multi-purpose sport court, which can be used for tennis, hockey and basketball. “It’s pretty wild,” Ritter says. “It doesn’t look like anything else in Edina.” Landscaping may not always take priority over interior decorating, but Ritter says the outside can have just as much impact on the relationship homeowners have with their home as the inside can. “It’s a huge change in how they live in their house,” he says. “The whole feel changes, and that’s what landscaping should do. I’ve had clients who didn’t like their house and suddenly they realize, we like our house and we want to stay.”