CASCARA

THE STUDIO

Ecology is the luxury.

Cascara was founded in 2014 by Maren Ellis and Theo Nakamura, who met restoring a creek bed and decided gardens deserved the same rigor. Today a studio of nine designers, horticulturists, and stone masons works from a converted warehouse on William Street.

The studio floor: a timber walkway running between planted beds of fern and moss under a beamed ceiling, colleagues at a table by the glazed wall.

Principals

Maren Ellis

Principal, Planting Design

BCSLA-trained; leads planting plans and the studio's nursery partnerships.

Theo Nakamura

Principal, Landscape Architect

Leads grading, stone, and structures; previously in public-realm practice.

How we work

  1. 01

    Site first. Two hours walking your land before a single sketch.

  2. 02

    Native backbone. At least seventy percent of every planting plan is Pacific Northwest native.

  3. 03

    Three-season establishment. We tend every new garden through its first year — visits, edits, and honest reporting.

Services

  • Landscape design & master plans
  • Design-build with our own crews
  • Rooftop & terrace systems
  • Native planting & habitat restoration
  • Establishment care

Recognition

  • Western Living — Designers of the Year, finalist, 2025
  • Vancouver Magazine — “The rewilders of William Street”, 2024
  • BCSLA Citation — Residential design, Howe Sound Forest House, 2024
Two pairs of hands setting a small plant into wet ground, rain standing in the soil behind them.

Walk your site with us.

A consultation begins with two hours on your land — what grows, where the water goes, where the light falls. Book yours and we'll bring the boots.

Book a consultation