The Office of the Designed Landscape Inc. was founded to address the issues and opportunities of the 21st-century landscape. The firm is most active in the complex metro regions of Southern California, where the need to create livable, resilient environments abounds. We plan and design sustainable parks, schools and places. We believe that the most successful projects come from close client and design team collaborations. We build upon a site’s history, physical conditions and community needs to deliver successful, unique site-specific solutions.

Our clients include private land owners, non-profit organizations, schools, design firms, and public agencies. We have successfully provided landscape architecture and planning services to municipalities, including the cities of Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Hawthorne, and Downey. Our public agency experience includes LA BOE, LACCD, LAUSD, SMMUSD, and LA Recreation and Parks. We are a WBE + SBE certified firm.

Many of our projects are renovations that require close attention to existing trees, structures, and uses. We proceed carefully and coordinate closely with the design team as we explore strategies to nurture and protect successful long-term investments.

We look forward to working with you to realize the full potential of each site, project and vision.

Our Team

Esther Margulies, ASLA, is the president and founder of The Office of the Designed Landscape (OotDL). She is also a professor of practice in the University of Southern California's Master of Landscape Architecture program in the School of Architecture. She is a licensed Landscape Architect in California and Massachusetts. As a practice leader at nationally recognized firms, she has led multi-disciplinary integrated teams on LEED-certified public realm and private sector projects, including urban transit, park, and mixed-use projects. Her work has included award-winning cultural heritage, urban stormwater, education, and park projects. She is a long-time advocate of a revitalized Los Angeles River, serving on the City of Los Angeles River master plan team, as the co-chair of one of the first professional design charrettes to re-imagine the river in the Studio City area in 1997, and as the co-founder of The Los Angeles River Public Art Project (LARA).

Ms. Margulies received her undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University and her Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She currently serves as a commissioner on the West Los Angeles Area Planning Commission, where appeals on projects in the California Coastal Zone are heard.

Yixuan Li is a graduate of the USC Master of Landscape Architecture + Urbanism program. She earned her undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China.  Ms. Li serves as a project designer and coordinator for a wide range of projects for OotDL.  She has supported projects from the conceptual design/entitlements phase through construction administration.  

Jaime Yamashita is a licensed landscape architect in California with over 15 years of practice experience.  She earned her Bachelor of Art from Pomona College and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from California Polytechnic University. She is a part-time faculty member at Cal Poly, teaching courses in construction documents and technologies and site engineering.  She has contributed to numerous projects at OotDL, including K-12 campuses, public parks, and multi-family housing projects.