Bay Tree Design, inc. is a women-owned landscape architecture and planning firm in Berkeley, California. Our work seeks to create beautiful, functional spaces that reflect ecological design principles, green building practices, and edible and native planting palettes. We offer landscape architecture and environmental planning services for residential, commercial, and educational settings. We are experienced in leading participatory design processes and welcome the opportunity to work with communities in crafting public spaces for everyone to enjoy. Bay Tree Design, inc. specializes in:

ECOSCHOOL DESIGN® & CHILDREN'S ENVIRONMENTS
We engage school communities in transforming their ordinary, paved schoolyards into vibrant ecosystems for outdoor learning and play, creating memorable spaces for children and adults. Our firm is currently working with the San Francisco Unified School District on their ground-breaking green schoolyard program, and with other schools around the Bay Area.

THERAPEUTIC GARDENS & EDIBLE LANDSCAPES
We design beautiful gardens for relaxation, healing, and community enjoyment that engage the senses and use a palette of native and edible plantings to draw visitors and wildlife.

RESIDENTIAL GARDENS
We work closely with our clients to develop exceptional, personalized, outdoor environments that embrace the whole family’s lifestyles and provide year-round enjoyment in settings large and small.

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN DESIGN & STEWARDSHIP
We are experienced leaders who use participatory design processes with adults and children to reach a community consensus for the design of schoolyards and other public spaces. We work with interested school districts and communities to establish maintenance plans that rely on collaborative community stewardship practices.

MANAGEMENT
Bay Tree Design, inc. is jointly managed by two founding partners, landscape architect Lisa Howard and environmental planner Sharon Danks.

SHARON GAMSON DANKS, MLA-MCP is an environmental planner and founding principal of Bay Tree Design, inc.  A frontrunner in the green schoolyards movement, Sharon’s professional work has focused on schoolyard ecology and ecological design since 1999. Danks has facilitated the green schoolyard master-planning process for more than two dozen green schoolyards in the San Francisco Bay Area. Collaborating with Lisa Howard, Sharon was the co-designer of the Sustainable Schoolyard exhibit displayed at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. in 2008. 

Over the last twelve years, Sharon has visited and documented more than 200 green schoolyards in North America, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Europe, and Japan. As a researcher, writer, and trailblazer, she has used this international experience to write Asphalt to Ecosystems: Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformation (New Village Press, November 2010) and to conceive and direct the Engaging Our Grounds: International Green Schoolyard Conference (September 2011). Sharon is also a frequent speaker at conferences and other public events.

In addition to her book, Danks has written a number of green schoolyard-themed articles that have appeared in Landscape Architecture Magazine, Orion, New Village Journal, and Green Teacher. She is also the lead-author of the Green Schoolyard Resource Directory for the San Francisco Bay Area. Sharon has directed three hands-on schoolyard ecology conferences for the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance (2002, 2004, 2008) and serves on their advisory board as one of the founding members of the organization. Sharon also serves on the national board for the Community Built Association.

In addition to a MLA-MCP from University of California, Berkeley, Sharon holds a Professional Certificate in Natural Resource Management from U.C. San Diego Extension and a BA from Princeton University. She is the mother of two expert playground testers, ages 8 and 11. 

LISA HOWARD, RLA (#5054), ASLA, BAY-FRIENDLY QLP is a licensed landscape architect who is passionate about helping people envision ideas for the outdoor spaces they inhabit.  She founded Bay Tree Design, inc. with Sharon Danks and has a gift for working with the client and arriving at a design that cleverly blends the site’s assets with the client’s desires.  U.C. Berkeley educated, Lisa has fifteen years of experience in the landscape architecture field. Her expertise includes designing public open space, children's spaces, community plans, interpretive gardens, trails and bridges, residential gardens, and leading design processes that engage community participation. Lisa has facilitated the green schoolyard master planning process for more than eighteen green schoolyards in the San Francisco Bay Area. Collaborating with Sharon Danks, Lisa was the co-designer of the Sustainable Schoolyard exhibit displayed at the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. in 2008.  As a mother, Lisa has a particular interest in creating spaces that foster imaginative play, provide rich ecological experiences, and challenge children physically while providing a place of respite from our fast paced society.