Choosing an outdoor living company can be difficult.
Beautiful photography can show you what a company has created. Reviews can tell you about other homeowners’ experiences. A conversation can help you decide whether you feel comfortable with a team.
But when you’re considering a significant investment in your property, it can also be helpful to look for independent evidence of expertise, quality, and professional standards.
Awards, certifications, professional credentials, press recognition, and industry leadership can provide some of that evidence—when you understand what they actually represent.
At High Prairie Outdoors & Pools, we believe recognition matters less because of the trophy and more because of who evaluated the work, what standards were used, and what that can tell you as a homeowner.
Not All Awards Tell You the Same Thing
When researching outdoor living companies in Kansas City, you’ll probably encounter the phrase “award-winning.”
But not all awards measure the same thing.
Some recognitions are determined by popularity contests, local voting, advertising relationships, or participation. They may be enjoyable acknowledgments, but they don’t necessarily tell you whether an independent expert evaluated the quality of a company’s design, craftsmanship, construction, or service.
Other awards require projects to be submitted for formal evaluation by independent professionals who understand the work being judged. Projects may be evaluated against established criteria and, in regional or national competitions, compared with work created by leading professionals well beyond Kansas City.
Those are the types of awards High Prairie has historically valued and pursued.
Not because collecting trophies is important to us, but because independent evaluation by respected professionals provides you with another meaningful piece of evidence when you’re deciding whom to trust with your home.
When You’re Evaluating an “Award-Winning” Company, Ask:
- Who judged the award? Was it an independent panel of industry professionals or a public vote?
- What was evaluated? Was the actual design, construction, craftsmanship, innovation, or client experience reviewed?
- What standards were used? Were there established judging criteria?
- Who was the competition? Was the company being compared locally, regionally, or nationally?
- Is the recognition relevant to your project? An award for business growth tells you something different from an award for residential design or construction.
The title of an award matters far less than what had to be demonstrated to earn it.
Recognition Earned Against a Higher Standard
High Prairie has intentionally focused much of our awards participation on professionally judged recognition at the regional and national level, particularly within sophisticated residential outdoor living.
Our projects haven’t simply been voted popular locally. Much of our most meaningful recognition has resulted from work being submitted for evaluation by third-party professionals and compared with exceptional projects produced by other firms across the Midwest and throughout the country.
That recognition includes:
Several National Awards of Excellence for Luxury Residential Design/Build
High Prairie has earned six National Awards of Excellence from NALP for residential landscape design/build, including recognition within high-investment and ultra-luxury residential project categories.
These projects compete on a national stage, allowing work created here in Kansas City to be evaluated alongside leading residential landscape and outdoor living projects from across the country. They are voted on by global design and construction experts and only the best in the nation win.
For a homeowner, that provides useful context: professionals outside of High Prairie—and outside of our local market—have evaluated the work and found it worthy of national recognition.
Multiple Best Outdoor Transformation Awards in the Midwest
High Prairie has earned multiple Best Outdoor Transformation in the Midwest awards from Unilock, recognizing residential properties for the quality and impact of their transformations.
That distinction can be especially relevant when you’re considering a comprehensive outdoor renovation.
A successful transformation isn’t simply about adding attractive individual features. It requires thoughtful relationships between the home, architecture, landscape, hardscaping, circulation, materials, functionality, and the way people will actually experience the property.
Best Driveway in the Midwest
High Prairie has also earned Best Driveway in the Midwest from Unilock recognition for our hardscape work.
A driveway may sound like a surprisingly specific thing to recognize, but it can reveal a great deal about construction standards.
Sophisticated hardscape work involves far more than the material visible on the surface. Foundation preparation, drainage, grading, load requirements, transitions, patterns, craftsmanship, edge conditions, and movement all influence how a finished installation looks and performs.
For homeowners considering patios, pool decks, walks, motor courts, or driveways, recognition in this category provides third-party validation of the craftsmanship behind one of the most technically important parts of an outdoor environment.
National Swimming Pool Awards & Recognition
High Prairie’s swimming pool work has also earned national recognition within the swimming pool industry, providing another layer of independent validation in one of the most technically complex disciplines within outdoor living.
A pool is not an isolated feature. Its design and construction interact with engineering, hydraulics, utilities, hardscaping, drainage, structures, landscape, lighting, and long-term maintenance.
For someone comparing pool builders, professional recognition provides another opportunity to evaluate whether the work has been considered against standards beyond the company’s own claims.
National Innovators of the Year
High Prairie has also been recognized as National Innovators of the Year by McFarlin Stanford, an honor that speaks to something different from the appearance of a completed project.
Innovation is part of a larger culture of research and perpetual improvement at High Prairie.
We continually study construction systems, horticultural science, materials, technology, professional development, and methodologies being used beyond our immediate market. Our objective isn’t to change things simply for the sake of being different. It is to identify where conventional practices can be improved and bring better solutions back to the families and properties we serve in Kansas City.
That philosophy has influenced innovations throughout our Legacy Program—from globally studied construction methodologies such as the Performance Trass Foundation to advancements in pools, soils, water management, horticulture, and continued property care. High Prairie's existing Legacy Program materials similarly emphasize combining European construction practices with modern soil science and adapting those approaches to Kansas City's conditions.
For you, national innovation recognition offers another kind of third-party evidence:
The company responsible for your property is committed not only to practicing its craft, but to continually advancing it.
What Should These Awards Mean to You?
They shouldn’t mean that you automatically choose High Prairie.
And they shouldn’t replace reviewing projects, asking questions, understanding construction methods, meeting the people responsible for your property, or deciding whether a company’s approach aligns with what you value.
Instead, think of meaningful third-party recognition as one more layer of due diligence.
If you’re comparing companies for a significant outdoor investment, look for evidence that helps answer questions such as:
- Has their work been evaluated by anyone other than themselves?
- Have knowledgeable professionals examined the quality of what they create?
- How does their work compare beyond their immediate local market?
- Have they demonstrated expertise in the disciplines my property requires?
Our national and regional awards help provide some of that evidence.
We’re grateful for every recognition, but the trophy itself isn’t the important part.
The standard behind it is.
What Class-1 Certification Means When You’re Comparing Contractors
Awards can provide evidence of past performance. Certifications and licenses help you understand the professional standards behind the work itself.
High Prairie Outdoors & Pools is the nation’s only Class-1 certified outdoor living contractor, with Class-1 certifications spanning multiple disciplines required to create a complete outdoor environment.
Our Class-1 certifications include:
- Landscape installation
- Landscape drainage and site-water management
- Irrigation
- Hardscape construction
- Swimming pool construction
Why does that matter to you?
Because outdoor projects are rarely made up of isolated parts. A pool affects the hardscape surrounding it. Hardscape construction affects drainage. Drainage influences soils, irrigation, and plant health. Grading affects nearly every part of the property.
Yet homeowners are often asked to hire separate companies for each discipline and trust that those companies will successfully coordinate with one another.
Class-1 certification supports a more comprehensive approach: understanding your outdoor environment as one interconnected system rather than a collection of unrelated features.
Through our Legacy Program, that philosophy carries from initial Discovery and design through construction and long-term Estate Stewardship.
For you, that can mean:
- More comprehensive planning across multiple disciplines
- Fewer gaps between interconnected systems
- Construction decisions made with long-term performance in mind
- Greater accountability for how individual elements work together
- Professionals who understand both the finished environment and the systems beneath it
When comparing contractors, the better question may not simply be, “Is this company certified?”
It may be:
“Does the organization responsible for my property have demonstrated expertise across the systems that must work together for it to perform well?”
Professional Certifications, Licenses & Specialized Training
Expertise Is Most Valuable When It Helps Your Team Make Better Decisions
A contractor’s website can quickly become a wall of certification logos and acronyms.
The more useful question is whether the organization has qualified professionals across the disciplines your property actually requires.
In addition to our Class-1 certifications, High Prairie’s team holds professional licenses, technical certifications, manufacturer-specific credentials, and specialized training across outdoor design, construction, pools, horticulture, and long-term property care.
That expertise includes:
- Class-1 certifications in landscape installation, drainage, irrigation, hardscape construction, and swimming pool construction
- Additional professional certification in swimming pool construction
- Certified architectural membrane installers
- Licensed general contractors
- Licensed landscape architecture expertise
- Certified hardscape installation methodologies
- Certified segmental retaining wall construction
- Performance Trass Foundation construction methodologies
- Horticultural, plant-health, pesticide application, and landscape-care certifications
- Irrigation, drainage, and water-management training
- Swimming pool maintenance and technical-care credentials
- Additional manufacturer, construction, safety, and specialty certifications across our team
Our professionals also bring formal education from respected institutions including Kansas State University, Iowa State University, the University of Kansas, Johnson County Community College, and others.
The purpose isn’t to collect credentials.
It is to give your property access to multiple kinds of specialized knowledge within one organization.
A hardscape professional needs to understand drainage. A pool professional needs to consider structures, hydraulics, hardscape, and surrounding grades. A horticulturist needs to understand soils and irrigation. A designer needs to know whether what is being envisioned can actually be constructed and cared for successfully.
The more sophisticated the property, the more valuable that interdisciplinary knowledge becomes.
Industry Thought Leaders & Educators
A Research-and-Teaching Organization Rooted in Perpetual Improvement
Another question worth asking when researching a highly specialized company is:
Is this organization simply repeating what it already knows—or is it actively working to become better?
High Prairie is intentionally built as a research-and-teaching organization rooted in learning, education, and perpetual improvement.
Our philosophy is influenced by research and teaching institutions where experienced professionals practice at a high level while simultaneously studying better methods, developing future experts, and sharing what they learn with others.
That mindset is deeply connected to how High Prairie has evolved.
Our team has traveled beyond Kansas City and internationally to study sophisticated approaches to outdoor construction, horticulture, pool building, hardscaping, design, materials, and long-term property care.
We study methods and standards developed and refined in other parts of the world—including European construction practices with histories far longer than many conventional American outdoor-building methods—and determine how the best of those ideas can be responsibly adapted to Kansas City’s soils, climate, architecture, and lifestyles.
The Performance Trass Foundation is one example: studying established European hardscape methodologies, understanding the principles behind their longevity and water management, and bringing that knowledge back to Kansas City rather than simply accepting conventional regional practices. This global-learning philosophy is central to the Legacy Program and High Prairie's approach to enduring construction.
But research is only one part of the model.
We teach what we learn.
High Prairie professionals have been invited to contribute knowledge through universities, manufacturers, national and regional industry programs, professional events, trade publications, and other educational platforms.
Within our own organization, experienced professionals teach developing team members, creating an environment where expertise is transferred, questioned, practiced, and improved rather than isolated within one person.
For you, this creates an important benefit.
You’re working with an organization that doesn’t view today’s standard as the finish line.
We continually ask what can perform better, last longer, look more refined, create a better experience, or improve the way an outdoor environment is cared for over time.
The goal isn’t simply to bring Kansas City what is common in Kansas City.
It is to study some of the highest standards, methodologies, materials, and ideas available globally and bring the best of what we learn back home.
Press, Expert Commentary & Professional Features
Recognition Can Also Come From Being Asked to Contribute
Press coverage can be another useful signal, but much like awards, the context matters.
There is a difference between purchasing exposure and being sought out because an editor, journalist, university, manufacturer, or professional organization believes your experience can contribute something useful to its audience.
High Prairie projects, professionals, and ideas have been featured in national design publications, regional publications, landscape and outdoor-living trade media, universities, manufacturers, and professional education programs.
Our work and expertise have appeared through outlets and organizations including Elle Décor, House Beautiful, regional design publications, industry trade publications, Kansas State University programs, Belgard University, and other professional resources.
We value these opportunities because they represent another form of third-party interest in the work and knowledge being developed here in Kansas City—and because sharing what we learn can help homeowners and other professionals make better decisions.
How to Research an Outdoor Living Company
Awards and certifications can help, but they shouldn’t replace due diligence.
Before choosing any company for a significant outdoor investment:
- Look beyond photographs. Ask how the project was constructed and who actually performed the work.
- Investigate third-party recognition. Find out who judged the awards, what standards were used, and whether the actual work was professionally evaluated.
- Ask about professional expertise. Determine whether the organization has expertise relevant to all the systems your property requires.
- Understand subcontracting. Ask which portions of your project will actually be completed by the company you’re hiring.
- Evaluate technical knowledge. Beautiful finishes matter, but so do drainage, soils, foundations, structural systems, irrigation, grading, hydraulics, and long-term care.
- Ask what happens after construction. Who services the work? Who handles warranties? Who understands how the landscape should mature?
- Look for continued learning. Materials, technologies, horticulture, construction science, and outdoor-living expectations continue to evolve. The professionals you hire should, too.
Recognition can help narrow your search.
Understanding what sits behind that recognition can help you make a better decision.
