Landscape architecture · Portland & Sonoma
We design, plant and build residential gardens, commercial grounds and public landscapes — reading the soil, the sun and the way you actually live outdoors, then drawing the scheme that fits.
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The studio
TerraScape began in a Portland back yard with one truck, a level and a stubborn belief that a garden is a piece of architecture that grows. Today we are fourteen people — landscape architects, horticulturists, a stonemason and a planting crew — working across the Pacific Northwest and Northern California.
We are deliberately horticulture-first. Before a single line is drawn we test your soil, log where the sun lands through the year, watch where water sits, and ask how you want to spend an evening outside. The plan follows the ground, never the other way round.
Design, engineering and planting sit under one roof, so the plan you approve is the plan that gets built.
Species are chosen for mature size, root run and maintenance appetite — not for the day of the photograph.
Climate-adapted and native palettes, specified with drainage, irrigation and two years of aftercare.
What we do
Every commission starts with a site reading and ends with a planting plan you can hand to a gardener in five years' time. The scale changes; the method does not.
01
Garden rooms that fit the way you actually live — places to eat, to sit in the shade at four o'clock, to watch something come up in March.
02
Grounds that carry a brand, a lease and a footfall — entrances, courtyards and roof terraces that still look composed on a wet Tuesday in February.
03
Public landscapes that hold up to real weather and real people: parks, plazas and greenways designed with the council, the engineers and the neighbours in the room.
Selected work
Garden, ground and public realm — each project here was surveyed, drawn, built and planted by the studio.
Residential
A double avenue of cloud-pruned box through an old orchard, with a gravel spine that drains the winter water away from the house.
Residential
Forty-two Irish yews set at a single rhythm to frame a borrowed view of the ridge — a garden structure that reads all winter.
Residential
A steep, shaded half-acre re-cut into three terraces with dry-stone risers, ferns and a path that finally makes the slope walkable.
Commercial
Hotel courtyard rebuilt around its original fountain: tiled paving, terracotta pots and shade that arrives exactly when the terrace fills.
Commercial
An institutional quad replanted as a shaded garden room — olive standards, gravel aprons and seating that pulls staff outside at lunch.
Commercial
A seasonal parterre for a garden estate: 18,000 bulbs, a bedding rotation drawn two years ahead, and a machine-widths-only maintenance plan.
Urban
Two acres of new public green over a former depot — engineered soils, a stormwater lawn and 140 trees chosen with the neighbourhood.
Urban
A 5.6-acre linear park linking three streets, with bioswales along the whole run and a path that floods nowhere, ever.
Residential
A reflecting pond as the pivot of the whole plan: liner, overflow and marginal planting detailed so it looks dug, not installed.
How it works
Five stages, one point of contact, and a written brief before anyone draws anything. Most gardens take nine to eighteen months from first meeting to final planting.
We walk the ground with you, take levels, log sun, wind and drainage, and dig a soil sample. You leave with a written brief and an honest fee range.
Two or three drawn directions covering structure, circulation and water — presented as plans, sections and a materials board you can hold.
Species chosen for your soil, exposure and maintenance appetite. Stone, timber and gravel selected with samples in hand and a set budget per square metre.
Our own crew sets out, engineers the levels, lays the hard surfaces and plants. One contract, one accountable team, weekly site photographs.
A two-year establishment programme: watering schedules, formative pruning, replacements under warranty, then a seasonal care calendar for whoever takes over.
Client voices
Homeowners, hoteliers and parks departments — three of the people who have lived with a TerraScape scheme for more than a season.
“We had lived in the house for nine years and never once used the back garden. TerraScape replanted an acre we thought was hopeless and somehow made it feel as though the land had always been like this.”
Elena MarchettiHomeowner · Sonoma County, CA
“Our courtyard went from a hot grey void to the thing guests photograph before they check in. They handled the levels, the drainage and a heritage facade in one contract, and hit the reopening date.”
Rohan MehtaDevelopment Director · Halcyon Hotels
“The greenway took two record-rain winters without a washout. The planting has survived what the previous scheme did not, and the community planting days are now an annual fixture.”
Amara OkaforParks Program Lead · City of Riverton
of new commissions come from a referral, a neighbour or a returning client — the only marketing we have ever really relied on.
Consultation
Tell us where the ground is and what you want from it. We will come out, read the site with you, and send a written brief with an honest fee range — before you commit to anything.
Six fields, one working day, no obligation.
We will be in touch within one working day to arrange a site walk.