Meeks Design Group, Inc. is a family owned company that was founded in 1990 by husband and wife duo, Herb and Valerie Meeks. Herb graduated from Kansas State in 1980 with a BLA in Landscape Architecture. After working for ten years as a landscape architect, decided to chase the dream of owning his own business. Valerie, working as a respiratory therapist, began to be his right hand “man” by helping with the business side of the company.
As a start up company, they worked from their home for the first couple of years to build up enough equity and clientele to move into their first office space. Their daughter remembers the smell of the plotter at age six. “Growing up with my parents working together was such a cool experience. Not many spouses can do it successfully, but I’ve always been proud out the way they handled everything. It was pretty special to get to go along with my dad to project sites and getting to “play” with the surveying equipment.”- Kristen Wright (daughter of Herb and Valerie)
After moving into their first space, a building Herb coincidentally did the design in 1983, dreams really started to come true. Twenty five years later, this one man (and one woman) firm has grown to a 9 person firm with two landscape architects, four landscape designers, and three support staff members, with licenses and projects in 29 states. With all of the success, the biggest accomplishment for Herb and Valerie has been their ability to grow without losing the family feel in the office. As they say, the journey and people you meet along the way is more important than the end, the best is yet to come.