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