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Landscape
Restored creek edge planted with sedges and young alder at dusk
2011
Practising in Portland since
About

We read the ground long before we draw a line.

Landscape is a landscape architecture studio founded in Portland, Oregon in 2011. We design parks, campuses, river corridors and stormwater systems across the western United States, working from survey data before sketches. Our sixteen-person team stays on site through the five years of establishment that decide whether a planting actually holds.

That order matters. Hydrology, soil and light set the limits; the drawing follows. It is a slower way to begin, and it produces ground a maintenance crew can keep, a watershed can absorb, and a city still recognises thirty years later.

Boardwalk crossing a restored wetland edge in early summer
Campus quadrangle with bioswale planting between paved routes
Native grasses and sedges establishing along a river terrace
Gallons of stormwater retained on site each year

2.4M

Acres restored or under active stewardship

310

Years of establishment monitoring on record

14

Native plant survival at year three

96%

Our values

We build with soil and water, not just drawings.

Survey before opinion

We measure soil, hydrology and light before anyone draws a line. Taste comes later.

Build what can be maintained

A landscape your grounds crew cannot keep is a landscape that has already failed.

Stay through establishment

We are on site for the five years that actually decide whether a planting works.

Studio staff kneeling to check soil moisture in a newly planted swale
The studio

Sixteen people. Four who set the direction.

Everyone here still walks the sites they draw — through construction, and through the seasons after the fencing comes down.

Portrait of Elena Braithwaite, founding principal

Elena Braithwaite

Founding principalFASLA, PLA

Founded the studio in 2011 after twelve years on public park commissions. Leads civic and campus work and still draws every grading plan by hand first.

Portrait of Marcus Oyelaran, principal for ecology

Marcus Oyelaran

Principal, ecologyPWS

Wetland scientist who joined in 2015. Runs restoration projects and the five-year monitoring programme that follows them.

Portrait of June Halloway, associate for planting design

June Halloway

Associate, planting designASLA

Builds the studio's regional plant palettes and manages contract growing with nurseries in four states.

Portrait of Theo Vance, associate for water

Theo Vance

Associate, waterPE

Civil engineer specialising in stormwater. Sizes every basin, swale and outfall the studio draws.

Open roles

We’re planting for a canopy none of us will sit under.

If you care about hydrology, soil and the long unglamorous work of establishment (in that order or any other), you might belong here.

Hybrid / Full-timePortland, OR

Project landscape architect

Lead civic and campus projects from schematic design through construction administration. You will run your own drawing sets and be on site often enough to know the contractor by name.

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Full-timeSeattle, WA

Restoration ecologist

Survey hydrology and soils, write planting prescriptions, and run the monitoring programme across our restoration sites in Washington and Oregon.

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ContractRemote-friendly

Stormwater engineer

Model and size green infrastructure for campus and civic sites. PE licence required; regional rainfall experience valued more than years served.

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Part-time / FlexiblePortland, OR

Stewardship lead

Walk our completed sites each season, train client grounds crews, and write the annual condition reports that keep establishment on track.

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Ready to build ground that lasts?

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