(left to right) Eden Projects’ Construction Manager John Connors, Founder Danée Marie Lambourne, and Junior Design Associate Elise Ralston
VICTORIA – Danée Marie Lambourne’s competitive advantage is her feminine perspective and genuine appreciation for agency.
The owner of Eden Projects, a boutique landscaping design and construction management firm in Victoria, has been building her company since 2005.
“Women bring something unique to the table in business,” she says. “Our natural tendency to nurture isn’t just for traditional associations with that word, it’s a superpower that allows us to make significant contributions to the whole, even paradigm shifts to the projects, partnerships and organizations we’re involved with.
“The ability to bring my client’s landscape dreams into reality via orchestration of my fellow tradesmen and women is something I take pride in, as someone who prides herself on her authenticity, my genuine qualities play a major role in making it happen.”
The company cultivates meaningful garden space transformation and production experiences; leading with white-glove project facilitation
Working in an industry and position, that’s still vastly male dominated, presents many of its own challenges, but Lambourne has fought, one project at a time, to become one of the leaders in her field. The proof? Clients keep coming back, and the referrals are pouring in.
“I want to be judged on my experience, merits, and agency, nothing else,” she says. “Over the years I’ve worked to build a portfolio that speaks for itself. Focusing on production, connection and relationships, building beautiful outdoor living spaces that extend and cultivate lifestyle,; doing so with a great team behind me have brought this company to where it is today.
“The past few years have been some of the best for our sector, even with all of the retention and supply challenges we have delivered dreams, provided excellence in our services and added incredible value to the lives and living spaces of our valued clients
Eden Projects is a locally run studio providing full-service landscape design, construction management and design integrity oversight
Eden Projects delivers on a wide range of project sizes, from small residential renovations, to large scale, landscape altering developments that shape communities and inspire those who visit.
“Everyone’s idea of luxury differs,” she says. “I’m tasked with the role of advocate between our client, our contractors, bringing the two parties together to create something memorable. A balancing act between vision and reality.
“We’re not your everyday landscape agency.
I’ve practiced direct communication from kickoff, which has always proved essential over the years. Sometimes I feel like a bit of a “dream crasher”, because there’s this misalignment between the accessible budget and vision. But the intention to get to the priorities finds a path to leverage the collective experience of the team to honour the client’s goal and get us to the finish line, without losing the motivation or desired lifestyle.
Separating Eden from the competition is its holistic approach to landscape construction. The firm boasts landscape design, construction management and consulting services. Often businesses in their field will only operate in one or two of those areas, but bringing all three together has helped the company stand out and establish itself as a leader and trade advocate across Vancouver Island.
“Bringing this collection of services to the region has greatly contributed to our success,” says Lambourne. “We’ve added veteran John Connors to the team, which has really brought us to a new level.”
“We’re really this ‘little engine that could’, operating in a misunderstood industry, and we’ve been able to build something really special.”
