Terraform Studio

About

A landscape practice with mud on its boots.

Terraform Studio is nineteen people across Portland and Sapporo. We stay small on purpose: every project gets a principal on site, not just on the title block.

Principles

Four rules we don't break

  1. Hydrology before geometry

    The drainage plan is the design. If the water diagram doesn't work, the prettiest planting plan is a future maintenance ticket.

  2. Design for year ten, not opening day

    We specify plantings for what they become, budget for establishment care, and write maintenance manuals the grounds crew can actually use.

  3. Local material, local labor

    Stone from within 200 miles, plants from regional nurseries, and contractors who will still be nearby when the warranty period ends.

  4. The public is the client

    Committees sign our contracts, but the people who cut through the site at 7 a.m. are who we design for. We prototype with plywood and ask them.

People

Principals & leads

Maren Okafor

Founding Principal

Licensed landscape architect, ex-hydraulic engineer. Started the practice after a decade designing detention basins nobody was allowed to enjoy.

Kenji Hasebe

Principal, Sapporo

Leads the Hokkaido studio and everything involving snow. Author of our cold-climate planting standard, now adopted by three prefectures.

Ruth Callender

Director of Soils & Planting

Soil scientist. Signs off on every planting plan and rejects roughly a third of them the first time. The 96% survival rate is mostly her doing.

Diego Marchetti

Construction Lead

Twenty years in heavy civil before joining us. Translates our drawings into things contractors can bid without padding, and walks every pour.

Recognition

Selected honors

  • 2024ASLA National Firm Award
  • 2023Good Design Award (Japan) — Odori Pocket Court
  • 2022WASLA Honor Award — Two Creeks Detention Basin
  • 2020Landscape Architecture Foundation Case Study Investigation — Hollow Meadow Schoolyard

See the work behind them