Vision
We approach each project with intuitive clarity and a commitment to crafting landscapes that are thoughtful, enduring, and highly responsive to program and place. Our designs celebrate the subtleties of the landscape—views, climate, hydrology, soils, vegetation, and history—to create spaces that elevate the experience.
Led by founder Michael Bliss, BLA’s creative team is driven by a refined aesthetic that values simplicity, beauty, and livability. Our landscapes are bold yet soft, stunning yet inviting—bringing enduring beauty to outdoor environments across a wide range of scales.
About
Our success is built on a close-knit workflow that informs every stage of a project— from evocative renderings to informed construction details and technical drawing sets. To maintain this high standard, we prioritize field trips and educational outings, finding balance between the rigors of the profession and the joy of shared discovery.
Our studio is nestled in the historic Farm Center on the upper bank of the Carmel River (Rumsen lands). This peaceful setting in Carmel Valley places us at the doorstep of the very wildland environments we are so passionate about perserving and enhancing.
Our Team
Our Team
Michael is the Founder and Design Principal of B/LA. With over 30 years of professional experience designing award winning landscapes, Michael brings a well-rounded and grounded design understanding to every project. Michael takes an active role in every project and is interested in creating contextual landscapes that reveal unexpected beauty in the most basic relationships between people and place. His intuitive sense of place, combined with extensive time in the field understanding each site, bring a rich and timeless expression of landscape design to our work.
A California native, Michael studied at the College of Architecture and Environmental Design at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, where he received the Award of Merit for excellence in the study of Landscape Architecture. As a California licensed Landscape Architect, Michael prides himself on being a well balanced collaborator, practicing impeccable communication with project teams and exceeding client expectations with the delivery of excellent service and innovative design solutions.
Prior to joining B/LA in 2019, Brian attended the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University. Graduating with Design Honors, Brian moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to commence his career with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. Brian's passion and interpretations of the land were heavily influenced and molded throughout his time in Cambridge.
After seven years in Cambridge, Brian relocated to raise a family in Vermont. There, he dedicated thirteen years as a Design and Studio Director at the office of Shepard Butler Landscape Architecture. While in Vermont, Brian solidified his design niche, expanded his experimentations, and advanced his explorations. His work can be described as soulful, meaningful, and exploratory.
Brian has received numerous academic, local, and national design awards for his residential and civic work over the past 20+ years. He has been a guest studio critic at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, Boston Architectural College, and Vermont Technical College. Brian is a licensed Landscape Architect and enjoys standing in open fields, gardening, furniture design, surfing, and being a Dad.
Jae's focus and love for Landscape Architecture is directed towards sustainability and how it shapes and influences the quality of life. This had triggered his interest in designing sustainable, functional, and aesthetic residential design and led him to join B/LA in 2019 after completing Master of Landscape from Rhode Island School of Design.
Jae loves to be outdoors and to do hand sketches of the landscape and objects of the surroundings. He appreciates the fact that ideas and visions on paper can become reality and that he could contribute in designing the landscape from concept to detail. He appreciates the spectrum of high-end residential projects that BLA shoulders and loves how B/LA approaches projects of different scales and programs in a way that could be ecologically pleasing. Outside of the office, Jae enjoys cooking, photography, soccer, basketball, and bowling.
A California native, Kyle was born and raised in Chico, CA, before attending Washington State University where he graduated Cum Laude with a degree in Landscape Architecture. While earning his degree he also received an ASLA Merit Award for Excellence in Graphics. Post graduation, Kyle found his way back to California and began his career with BLA in 2022. His design philosophy is rooted in sustainability, connection, and challenging the definition of nature. Through studying how the environment and people within react with one another, he attempts to bridge this gap through his design work, allowing a symbiotic relationship to exist between all flora and fauna of a given site. When not in the office, Kyle enjoys cycling, writing, cinematography, and attending Monterey Bay FC games, Go Union!
Hannah studied landscape architecture at California Polytechnic University, Pomona, where she received numerous recognitions including the Southern California ASLA Student Honor Award. This formal training, coupled with her background in habitat restoration, ecological immersion, and magical realism, informs her approach to design. Hannah believes that well designed landscapes can make us happier, healthier, and more compassionate towards the wide world.