Whole System Studio is a
landscape architecture and planning practice
rooted in thoughtful process, purposeful design, and enduring impact.
We create spaces that support the human experience—never overpowering it—by embracing the interconnected systems that define our world. Our designs are subtle, deliberate, and deeply responsive to people and place.
Where People, Place, and Process Converge
Our Services
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We approach landscape architecture as the integration of natural systems, cultural patterns, and human experience. From parks and campuses to mixed-use and civic spaces, our designs are purposeful, responsive, and enduring—each element shaped to contribute to a unified and lasting whole.
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Our urban design work connects people to place through thoughtful scale, movement, and context. We shape frameworks that foster community, comfort, and belonging.
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We approach master planning as a collaborative, systems-based process—laying the foundation for resilient, flexible places that evolve with time and use.
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We design and lead engagement processes that elevate diverse voices. With empathy and intention, we guide conversations that build trust, connection, and shared vision.
About Us
Whole System Studio is a landscape architecture and urban design firm based in North Texas, working on projects across the United States. We specialize in creating impactful, enduring, and dynamic environments that foster connection and long-term value.
Founded by Mike Fraze, an accomplished industry leader, the firm builds on his extensive experience as Co-Founder and Partner at Studio Outside and Principal at MESA. With nearly three decades of experience, Mike has refined a design philosophy that recognizes each project as unique, requiring a tailored approach that balances people, programs, and resources.
Our expertise spans parks, camps, mixed-use developments, civic spaces, urban living, hospitality, institutions, and academic environments, along with planning and strategy services. We offer landscape architecture, facilitation and engagement, programming, and master planning, ensuring that every project is thoughtfully designed and strategically executed.
Through innovative problem-solving and collaborative partnerships, we craft spaces that promote social equity, environmental stewardship, and economic vitality.
How We Work
Established in 2023, Whole System Studio is a landscape architecture and planning practice that designs ‘people spaces’. Our design philosophy is simple:
Transformative design celebrates the human experience - that is the ‘show’ in our work. Landscape architecture, if employed with thoughtfulness and restraint, serves as the stage-set for those experiences. Our landscapes do not shout, rather they whisper, and humbly participate as the backdrop to all of life’s meaningful memories.
Our work is process-based, founded in a respect for the participants and resources that comprise our projects. The manner(s) in which those participants and resources interact is known as engagement, and it is where memories and experiences are realized. The depth and value of which is what measures the success of our work.
Participants embody those we serve, and those we wish to serve - a diverse group full of different storylines, perspectives, and needs. Our collaborative process establishes a forum of Dignity, Empathy, and Integrity that allows us to celebrate our ‘common grounds’ while building unity, and more importantly relationships that will guide our work.
We expand beyond inventory and assess the vulnerability and adaptability of the resource through our sensitivity assessment. We map the intrinsic ‘rooms’ of our resources, and document any storylines or legacies they once held or hold in our experiential analysis. These documents give voice to an otherwise voiceless resource, ensuring we are ‘balanced’ in our approach to the land.
Engagement is the confluence between participants and the resource. It is where our interactions occur and it is where our experiences and memories are made. Informed by our process, we build upon dialogues with participants and our resource mapping to envision landscapes that are inspirational, equitable, and accomplishable.
Overlooking one of these components erodes the integrity of the others - our ‘whole system’ process ensures that our work is balanced, responsive, and equitable.
Leadership Team
MIKE FRAZE
Owner
MARK THOMAS
CAMERON HOLMES
CHARLIE PRUITT
Contact Us
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