OUR TEAM

BAY TREE DESIGN is a small woman-owned design firm founded in 2007. We thrive on a diversity of projects that challenge and stimulate our creativity while drawing from the broad range of skills, areas of interest, and educational backgrounds held individually. The communal knowledge of our staff provides a broad foundation that contributes to our firm’s unique approach to projects, our passion for meaningful program development, and collective creativity. 

  • Lisa Howard is a licensed California landscape architect and Founding Principal of Bay Tree Design. She has has a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture and has been providing site design and policy focused on children’s, ecological, and community landscapes for over twenty-five years. Lisa is an expert facilitator, and has helped numerous groups come to consensus creating spaces they cherish. She is currently serving on the Executive Committee for the International School Grounds Alliance sustaining an interest in creating meaningful daily spaces for children. Ms. Howard’s work reflects her range of interests with consistent focus on landscapes that are rooted in ecological systems and cultural history, children’s spaces, visible green architecture, and community-based design.

    Education

    Master of Landscape Architecture
    University of California, Berkeley

    BA, Art
    California State University, Northridge

Co-Founder and Principal

  • Beyond her education in landscape architecture, Agathe Danzanvilliers has forged her experience as a landscape designer by working on numerous public projects throughout France, after earning a diploma in applied arts in historical Ecole Boulle, in Paris. Agathe’s cultural background and creativity allow her to bring a unique perspective on a variety of projects around the bay, where she intends to give urban spaces a sense of place and human scale, to help bring people closer together.

    Education

    DSAA (Master equivalent) in Space Design, College of art Boulle, Paris, France

    Brevet de Technicien Supérieur en Design d’Espace, College of Art Boulle, Paris, France

    French Baccalaureate, Vitré, France

Senior Associate

  • Arran is passionate about creating equitable outdoor experiences for children that offer the interactive possibilities with the natural world that are vital to healthy, balanced lives. Through her educational and professional experience as well as the experience earned by raising her three children, Arran is well-versed in the parameters of constructed play spaces, and how they influence children’s wellness and development. Arran brings great depth to the projects she works on with a solid understanding of children’s outdoor environments, landscape architecture, the elements, flow and program necessities to create an engaging nature-play experience.

    Education

    Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Landscape Architecture
    University of California Berkeley Extension

    BA in Mathematics & Economics
    Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

    Fine Arts Focus
    City University, London, England

Senior Associate

  • Emma made the career pivot from graphic design to landscape architecture in search of a greater sense of purpose: bringing the restorative power of nature to those that need it most. Volunteering with Edible Schoolyard in her home state of New York led her to focus her pursuits on creating beautiful outdoor spaces for children to learn and thrive. This experience and her own childhood ties to the outdoors, were the impetus for her MLA thesis: “A Culture of Change: The Inherent Power of Restorative Justice to Transform Public Schoolyards,” a call for the creation of outdoor spaces for social programs in public schools; a supportive approach to greening public schoolyards. Emma brings a curious, rigorous spirit of research to everything she does. She is excited to continue to develop her real-world experience creating within and around the children’s realm at Bay Tree Design. Her substantial background in graphic design now serves her work in landscape architecture, supporting a mature design process, refined drafting, and clear presentations, communications, and site signage.

    Education

    Master of Landscape Architecture
    University of California, Berkeley

    Bachelor of Fine Arts, Graphic Design
    Savannah College of Art and Design

Designer

  • Kendra brings experience creating deeply inclusive spaces from her background in community volunteer engagement and outdoor science education to youth ages three to seventeen. She was driven to make the career shift from education to landscape architecture as she witnessed the harmful impacts of climate change and limited access to nature on environmental and mental health, particularly across generations and neurodiverse populations. As she worked towards her MLA at UC Berkeley, she conducted research on the ways we live and play with more-than-human life, as well as how we create culturally responsive landscapes of memory. This passion for connecting people, plants, and animals in healthy environments is enhanced by her ability to organize projects in clear and thoughtful ways.

    Education

    Master of Landscape Architecture
    University of California, Berkeley

    Bachelor of Science, Environmental Economics
    James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA

Designer