Benefits of specializing in niche design/build jobs

Look up, way up, in downtown Louisville. Check out the rooftops of historic buildings that house local eateries and distilleries. If there’s greenery growing up there, you can bet Fransen Group is responsible.

The design/build firm Alex Fransen started in 2014, after growing an 18-year career in the green industry, is pretty much the only game in town when it comes to installing green roofs. Those projects include vegetative rooftops, plazas and other types of gardens in the sky.

“We do a lot of really boutique-y work that a typical landscape company doesn’t have the expertise to do,” Fransen says of the firm’s niche: high-end residential and commercial properties that are looking for detail-oriented design.

At ground level, this means installing fiberglass pools into carefully curated outdoor living spaces. (Fransen Group recently expanded into pool installation.)

With a landscape architect and a half-dozen trained staff on hand, Fransen Group takes pride in being a high-end, turnkey solution for its clients. “We have excelled by providing amenities that typical landscape companies don’t have the skill set or tradespeople to do,” he says.

Read the full story from the April issue here.