This year’s A to Z Issue celebrates people and businesses who have been successfully riding the turbulent waves of change and offering service and hope to the community at large. The print edition will be out later this month, but we’re teasing the content online, one letter at a time. 

Much of the (seemingly endless) controversy over the new St. Pete Pier has focused on showy bits like Janet Echelman’s multi-million-dollar aerial installation Bending Arc. But the biggest kudos should go to the landscape design teams. Brooklyn-based W Architecture & Landscape Architecture worked with local partners Kimley-Horn on the Pier approach, including the Gateway —  a formerly nondescript stretch of 2nd Ave. N. that’s been transformed into a grand palm-lined boulevard — while NYC-based Ken Smith Workshop worked with St. Pete’s Booth Design Group on the over-water section of the Pier, where the lush Coastal Thicket pays enthralling homage to Florida’s native plant life.

Homeowners never have to deal with landscaping jobs on the scale of the Pier, of course, but they expect the same attention to quality, to natural beauty, and most important, to the details which make a greenscape unique. That’s what they get when they enlist the services of Landscapes by Randy Lee. “You are original and so is your home,” says Lee. “We understand that.” His expansive portfolio, encompassing gardens from Fort Lauderdale to Clearwater Beach, stands as clear evidence of his exquisite eye and versatility.

Next: M is for Money: Vital funding and good advice during times of crisis