Van Zelst

Van Zelst Designing landscapes is a great way to make a living. The work is varied, interesting and rewarding.

Founded by David Van Zelst in 1979, Van Zelst provides landscape design, installation, and maintenance services throughout Chicago’s Northshore and Lake Geneva Wisconsin. Founded as a landscape design/build firm in 1979, Van Zelst has always been focused on satisfying the design needs of our client. As it turned out, that’s one of the aspects of the business we find most rewarding. Year after year

, the Van Zelst team has designed, installed and maintained beautiful landscapes where clients can play with their children, entertain friends and build their private histories. Over the years, we have continued to seek new ways to ensure the complete satisfaction of our clients. That’s why we now grow 90% of the perennials we use—plus trees and shrubs—in 60 poly greenhouses behind our headquarters. It’s the only way to be sure we’re providing the quality our clients deserve. Today, the Van Zelst team has grown to more than 75 members—including landscape architects, horticulturists, foresters, field managers, stone masons, maintenance teams and more. While we all bring different skill sets, each of us is focused on the same thing—making sure you’re at home in what we create for you.

The Lake House, Part Two.  A Williams Bay property on Geneva Lake, built around a simple idea: the water is the destinat...
08/18/2026

The Lake House, Part Two. 
 
A Williams Bay property on Geneva Lake, built around a simple idea: the water is the destination, so every space should point at it. The spa faces the horizon. The pool terrace steps down toward the shore. Stone walls hold the lawn as it falls to the dock. 
 
Part One showed a property where the lake holds the view and the pool holds the day. This one goes further. Here, you never stop moving toward the water. 
 
Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

08/10/2026

The last 8pm sunset of the season, and we’re spending it exactly like this. 
 
Fire on, string lights up, a couple of chairs pulled in close. Chicago’s daylight starts giving back after tonight, so if you built the backyard for evenings, this is the version of it that pays you back. 
 
Get outside for this one.

07/30/2026

Everyone talks about the big moves. We obsess over the small ones. 
 
The sound of water before you see it. The way grass moves in a breeze. Lighting you feel but never notice. These are not finishing touches. They are the difference between a yard that looks designed and one that feels alive.

The Lake House.  A Lake Geneva property with a pool, and a good reason for both. The lake holds the view. The pool holds...
07/09/2026

The Lake House. 
 
A Lake Geneva property with a pool, and a good reason for both. The lake holds the view. The pool holds the day. One is what the property faces. The other is where the family actually spends the afternoon. 
 
The design moved to let them read as one place. Terrace, planting, axis, water. All pulled toward the same horizon.

A kitchen garden that earns its place on the property.  Cedar raised beds, basil set against zinnias and petunias, a fla...
06/15/2026

A kitchen garden that earns its place on the property. 
 
Cedar raised beds, basil set against zinnias and petunias, a flagstone path with crushed bluestone joints, a rustic gate to the lawn beyond. The food is part of the design, not separate from it.

Quiet rooms in the garden. The gathering room around the firepit.  The dinner room under the pergola.  The reading room ...
06/10/2026

Quiet rooms in the garden. 
The gathering room around the firepit.  
The dinner room under the pergola.  
The reading room with the cedar chaise.  
The swing in the back.  
The bench at the walk’s end.  
 
Five rooms designed to give a property its full reading. North Shore homes. DM us about the room your property doesn’t have yet.

06/05/2026

Forty-five years of decisions read at this scale. 
 
The joints, the planting transitions, the water, the edges. The part of the work no one talks about until they walk through it.

Every property needs a place the eye is meant to land.  A bench at the far end of the lawn. A burgundy shrub behind it. ...
06/03/2026

Every property needs a place the eye is meant to land. 
 
A bench at the far end of the lawn. A burgundy shrub behind it. A weeping branch as the natural top frame. Set everything around it. The destination has to come first.

The first long evening of summer is the one you remember.  The light holds past eight now. Dinner outside stops being a ...
05/29/2026

The first long evening of summer is the one you remember. 
 
The light holds past eight now. Dinner outside stops being a plan and becomes the default. The wine lasts. The conversation runs past dark. Nobody checks the time, and nobody goes inside. 
 
If yours isn’t ready for them yet, now is the time.

05/26/2026

This is what a morning in your Twin Lakes garden should feel like. Quiet, unhurried, and entirely yours before the day begins. 
 
Designed to be lived in, not just looked at.

Address

39400 U.S. 41
Wadsworth, IL
60083

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

Telephone

(847) 243-6587

Website

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