Honored Among Los Angeles Business Journal’s Women of Influence

Cassy Aoyagi, president of FormLA® Landscaping, aims to transform every space she can into a vibrantly beautiful, optimally sustainable, place to connect with nature.

Creating fire defensive landscapes to support the resilience of LA is a particular passion.

Aoyagi promotes an authentically LA landscape aesthetic, relying on use of native and climate-compatible plants, innovative permeable hardscapes, and smart water infrastructure. Her dedication to this distinctive approach resulted in the Los Angeles Business Journal honoring her among its Women of Influence: Construction, Architecture and Engineering for several years.

In 2018, Aoyagi was recognized as a Woman in Business Honoree for the 25th Assembly District, and she previously received the small business of the year award for the district. The Los Angeles Business Council has also named FormLA Landscaping among LA’s most influential family owned businesses.

Perpetually curious, Aoyagi has developed specialized expertise in fire defensive landscaping. In 2017, after evacuating for both the La Tuna Fire and Creek Fires, Aoyagi looked to enhance the safety of her own home and that of her clients. She then worked with Theodore Payne Foundation and USGBC-LA to inspire and develop fire risk reduction programs.

Aoyagi contributes significant time and attention to improving LA’s resilience. She:

• Sits on the LA County Planning Department’s Significant Ecological Areas Technical Advisory Committee (SEA-TAC) and previously served as board president of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants.
• Served as board secretary and a board member of the U.S. Green Building Council, Los Angeles (USGBC-LA), now USGBC California. She is one of the rare practitioners aggregated in both Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and Sustainable SITEs programs.
• Delighted in leading the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants as its board president, long time board member, volunteer an sponsor.

Aoyagi’s work has been covered in InStyle, Sunset, Dwell and Form Magazines, as well as on HGTV and in the LA Times. She has contributed expertise to the Los Angeles Times’ SoCal Garden Clinic and Houzz, as well as the USGBC’s Green Home Guide. FormLA Landscaping and Aoyagi’s work is frequently featured on area garden tours.

Aoyagi earned her bachelors in environmental horticulture at California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo and co-founded FormLA Landscaping with her husband and FormLA co-founder Kirk Aoyagi in 1997.

When her mind isn’t adding green space to every square inch of Los Angeles, Aoyagi is likely cooking for her family, delighting in the antics of her son and Portuguese Water Dog or enjoying the trails of Tujunga.

Get to Know Cassy Aoyagi

Cassy leads us through the fire defensive features of a treeful property, nestled into a Tujunga hillside:
 

 
 
Tour a beautiful fire defensive Mandeville Canyon property with Cassy:
 

 
 
Aoyagi moderates a discussion among experts from the fields of wildland fire management and education, home-hardening, defensive landscaping, and fire-safe community organizing:
 

 
 

Co-Founder and Vice President, FormLA Landscaping

Kirk Aoyagi ensures each outdoor space FormLA® Landscaping builds goes beyond saving water to water positivity using the latest technologies and most sustainable practices. He is energized by matching that technical goal with the opportunity to complement the varied, distinctive architectural styles of Los Angeles. He is our dream builder – if he says it can be done, it can.

Kirk has a deep understanding of sustainable landscape-supporting technologies, particularly those related water conservation. He earned EPA-accredited WaterSense manager, a CLIA water manager certification, and an irrigation auditor designation from the Irrigation Association. Kirk knows the ins and outs of sophisticated smart irrigation systems, weather-based controllers, as well as low impact runoff prevention and mitigation techniques. This knowledge supports FormLA® Landscaping’s ability to develop water positive landscapes and to retrofit existing irrigation systems to conserve water.

Kirk and his wife Cassy founded FormLA Landscaping as C&K Landscape Design in 1997. By 2000, their interest in ensuring everything their clients experienced was “just right” led them to building a full-service firm.

In addition to his water-focused credentials, Kirk is a registered sustainable landscaper and a licensed landscape contractor. He earned bachelors of science degree in environmental horticulture science at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.

If you see a mountain bike whizz by you in the LA foothills, it just might be Kirk. Mountain biking is a great passion, as is being the best dad ever to the couple’s son and Portuguese Water Dog.

More from Kirk

• Los Angeles Times: How to Tear Out Your Garden By Yourself
• Los Angeles Times: This Los Angeles couple is on a mission to save the environment, starting with their own backyard

Four-Time Sustainable Innovation Award-Winning Designer

A four-time Sustainable Innovation Award-Winner, FormLA® Landscaping Lead Designer Isara Ongwiseth consciously honors the natural and cultural history of the sites he beautifies.

Award-Winning Design

Isara earned Sustainable Innovation Awards for his work on two projects that beautifully harness rainfall, feed their residents – and spark imagination. A front garden bioswale and edible garden at the LEED Platinum Matloff Residence in LA’s storied Hancock Park turns heads and proves innovation and historic preservation can go hand in hand. Read about it in the Los Angeles Times.

At the Gateway at Willowbrook, a multi-story, mixed development property for seniors, Isara transformed a small space between the structure and the 105 freeway into a peaceful retreat for residents.

Isara’s work at a French provincial home in La Canada earned placement on the Art of the Garden and USGBC-SGV garden tours, placement on the International Greenbuild Tour, a Certificate of Recognition for environmental stewardship from the California State Assembly, and two La Canada Valley Beautiful awards. Here, his architecturally-relevant design replaced a boring traditional lawn with a Mediterranean garden full of vibrant colors and textures.

Garden Tour Favorites

You may recognize some of Isara’s projects from local garden tours. Isara’s designs are perennial favorites on Theodore Payne Foundation’s annual Native Plant Garden Tour, where gardens must feature more than 75 percent native foliage and showcases the tastes and lifestyle of the owners. He’s skilled at ensuring gardens reflect the needs of the environment found in their unique LA microclimate and neighborhood history as well as each home’s distinctive architecture.

The Art of the Garden tour featured this once-sunny Pasadena property in 2016. The homeowners opened it again in 2024 for the The Garden Conservancy’s Pasadena Open Days as The Schumacher Garden Retreat. . into a shady oasis.

Public Gardens

Beyond his residential designs, Isara contributed to the Authentic Foothill Gardens at Sierra Madre City Hall and Fire Defensive demonstration Garden at the Sierra Madre Post Office becoming an expert in the region’s historic role as a breadbasket for native people’s and the rare geology of its nearby alluvial fan. Gardens surrounding Sierra Madre City Hall save water and energy while reflecting the area’s history as a bread basket for Native American nations. Isara also contributed to the lush, low-water design of the New Look for LA at Descanso Gardens.

Isara’s work on the New Look for LA garden in the Center Circle at Descanso Gardens made led to its unusually long run on center stage and fueled his contributions to the evolution of Descanso’s California Garden.

Prior to joining FormLA Landscaping, Isara conducted extensive research into the design of many urban centers, including Los Angeles’ historical Olivera Street, Los Angeles Union Station, and a Pomona pocket park. He earned is bachelor of science in Landscape Architecture at California Polytechnic University, Pomona.

When Isara isn’t designing the outdoor dreams of our clients, Isara is growing his own garden in Alhambra or perhaps heading out to Redondo for some time at the beach.

Get to Know Isara:

1. Los Angeles Times: This Storybook cottage’s native plant wonderland shows how gorgeous no grass can be
2. Los Angeles Times: They wanted their drought-tolerant yard to spark conversations
3. Los Angeles Times: 10 plant gurus on how they’ll experiment in SoCal gardens in 2023
4. Tour a Shady Oasis with homeowner Tom Schumacher and Designer Isara Ongwiseth
5. Grow Money on Trees
6. Create Long Haul Love,
7. Design-In Community
8. Change Your Lawn, Change Your Life

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