Stephen Billings has over twenty years of design and project management experience within the fields of architecture and landscape architecture. After graduating from the Syracuse University School of Architecture, he travelled west to work with Paulo Soleri on building the Arcosanti Project in the desert north of Phoenix. He developed his interests in materiality and hand-crafted built form by working directly in construction of this prototypical city. Later, he worked as an architectural designer with notable architectural firms in Los Angeles including Dean Nota, Hodgetts and Fung, Rockefeller-Hricak, and Richard Meier and Partners. His interests in the intersection between architecture and landscape architecture led him to the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It was during this pivotal period of study and subsequent work with Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates in New York that his work began to focus on the experiential and phenomenal qualities that landscape architecture can bring to specific places.

Stephen returned to Los Angeles in 2006 to work with Pamela Burton & Company, Landscape Architecture. During the next eight years he collaborated with Pamela Burton to design and manage over a hundred projects throughout the United States, Brazil, Australia and Mexico, including corporate and medical campuses, courthouses, universities, parks, performing arts centers, large scale residential projects and estates. He gained the necessary skills to thoughtfully design, detail and construct landscapes built to last.

In early 2015 Stephen left Pamela Burton & Company as Director of Design to form Stephen Billings Landscape Architecture. This new platform allows him to investigate new ways to solve complex environmental challenges and to explore landscape architectural designs that incorporates ecology, water resource management, and sustainable design practices to create performative landscapes. His work focuses on amplifying the experience and perceptions of each site through manipulations of topography, use of plant materials and built form.

Stephen is currently teaching a graduate landscape architecture design studio at University of Southern California. He has taught landscape architecture at Harvard University and Otis College of Art and Design. He has served on architecture and landscape architecture design juries at UCLA, Southern California Institute of Architecture, USC and Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Education
Master of Landscape Architecture – Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Cambridge, MA Bachelor of Architecture – Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY

License
Landscape Architect, State of California #5351 LEED Green Associate

Membership
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) American Institute of Architects (AIA) San Vicente Design Review Board Member Los Angeles Urban Forum Westside Urban Forum Brentwood Community Council, Land Use Committee South Brentwood Residents Associate, Advisory Board Member

Jason Thompson is a landscape designer whose interest in the built environment stems from his work experience as a stone mason. Jason began working on construction sites at a young age; where he helped his father craft walls, terraces, waterfalls and other stone features on private residences. He gained a deep appreciation for quality craftsmanship, and a realization that attention to detail is key to forging extraordinary outcomes. Jason carries these notions into his work at SBLA, where his interests lie in creating a vivid sensory experience for the user. He strives to combine materials in a thoughtful way to develop elegant compositions that are rich with texture and color. In conjunction with proper construction detailing and administration, projects will become striking, durable and cherished spaces in the landscape.

Jason joined SBLA in 2017 after graduating from the Pennsylvania State University with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree. During his undergraduate studies Jason was exposed to a diverse range of design philosophies through his work in central Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Barcelona Spain and Bonn Germany. He is eager to use his knowledge to the help SBLA create beautiful and sustainable landscapes in Southern California.

Education
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture – The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA

Sarah Ferreter brings a broad range of influences to her work at SBLA. She comes from a background in the fine arts, public art, and garden design. As a landscape architect she has worked on numerous residential, commercial, and institutional projects at various scales. In her years of professional experience in the creative field, Sarah’s work has consistently negotiated the intersection of aesthetics, innovation, and practicality.

As a designer, she’s committed to creating mindful landscapes that engender a strong sense of place and belonging. As a project manager, she is detail-driven and highly involved from design conception to construction. She actively works to promote collaboration with clients and fellow design consultants in order to ensure the projects are on time and on budget. Above all, she is passionate about truly listening to the needs and desires of SBLA’s clients, creating spaces that are uniquely personal, beautiful, functional, and ecologically robust.

Sarah and her family live on the east side of Los Angeles. She is an unrepentant helicopter parent to her young son.

Education
Master of Landscape Architecture. Magna Cum Laude – University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Bachelor of Fine Art, Sculpture – Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD

License
Landscape Architect, State of California #6741

Membership
American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

Jessica’s path to landscape architecture began in her formative years in the Midwest. She spent time exploring the forests and cliffs on her family’s farm in ‘the driftless area’ along the Mississippi River in Minnesota. This natural playground sparked a captivation with how the landscape was formed, and the seasonal ephemera that occurred within this landscape. These childhood observations informed her studies at Iowa State University, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture. Her work focused on design as an opportunity to integrate ephemeral phenomena and regionally appropriate materials. She is also deeply interested in creating social spaces that nurture civic engagement and a sense of community.

As a landscape architect, Jessica has collaborated on the design and project management of projects varying in scale from large master-planned developments to university campus work to residential gardens. She has risen to the Project Manager role quickly during her ten years of practice. For every project Jessica follows the guiding principles that the landscape design should express the client’s vision while responding to the architecture in a meaningful, ecologically sensitive way.

When she is not at SBLA, running throughout her neighborhood, or trying new recipes in her kitchen, she spends time exploring new playgrounds with her husband, three children, and dog. She enjoys having her hands in the earth, whether exploring planting concepts in her home garden or working in her pottery studio.

Education
Bachelor of Landscape Architecture – Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

License
Landscape Architect, State of California #6254

Billy goes above and beyond to keep his co-workers safe!