About Colao & Peter
Thoughtfully designed. Expertly built. Personally yours.
The best outdoor spaces give you more reasons to spend time at home. They become the place where friends gather, children grow up, and an ordinary evening feels a little more special. At Colao & Peter, that is what we love creating.
We are a team of landscape architects, designers, craftspeople, and construction professionals serving Northern Virginia, Washington, DC, and Maryland. From pools and outdoor kitchens to gardens, pavilions, and complete backyard transformations, we bring the pieces together to create spaces that feel like a natural extension of your home and the way you live.
Our Story
Colao & Peter began as a partnership between Joe Colao and J.R. Peter, bringing together a passion for thoughtful landscape architecture and quality construction. Today, J.R., a Registered Landscape Architect and Virginia Tech graduate, leads the company with that same commitment to doing work we are proud of and taking good care of the people who trust us with their homes.
Our roots in masonry and craftsmanship still shape how we approach every project. We care about how materials feel, how details come together, and how a space will look and function years from now. Those decisions, both large and small, are what make a finished project feel personal and complete.
Our work has earned numerous industry awards and appeared in publications including Home & Design and Modern Luxury. We are proud of that recognition, but there is something especially rewarding about returning to a client’s home and seeing the space being enjoyed exactly as they had hoped.
A Team You Can Get to Know and Trust
An outdoor project is personal. You are inviting a team into your home, making a significant investment, and trusting them to bring your vision to life. We take that responsibility seriously.
Our process starts with getting to know you. How do you spend time at home? Who will use the space? What do you wish you could do outside that you cannot do today? Understanding those things helps us create a design that reflects your priorities and feels like it belongs to you.
With design and construction under one roof, our team works together from the earliest ideas through the finishing details. That collaboration helps us consider beauty, budget, and buildability together, while giving you people to turn to for guidance throughout the process.
We want you to feel comfortable asking questions, confident about decisions, and informed about what comes next.
Our Philosophy
We believe the experience of creating your outdoor space deserves as much care as the space itself. To us, exceptional service means listening closely, communicating clearly, following through, and paying attention to the details that matter to you.
And our relationship does not have to end when construction is complete. Through Signature Care, we help maintain and care for the spaces we create, so you can spend more time enjoying them.
Ultimately, our work is about the life that happens in these spaces: a quiet morning by the pool, dinner outside with friends, or an evening with family around the fire. Creating the setting for those moments is why we do what we do.