About
TLS Berkeley
Tom Leader
Principal / Founder
Tom Leader is founder and principal of TLS Landscape Architecture in Berkeley, CA. For nearly 35 years, Tom has grounded his practice in an authentic understanding and appreciation of culture, ecology, craftsmanship and design. Sincere in his exploration of the creative process, Tom has remained on the cutting edge of design innovation, his work widely recognized for excellence. Since founding TLS in 2001, Tom has sought to create “original, tangible experiences” of place in such award-winning projects as Railroad Park in Birmingham, Alabama, and RIVERFIRST in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and through his provocative site works and art installations. A former partner at Peter Walker + Partners, Tom received a BA in landscape architecture from UC Berkeley and MLA from Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
He received the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture at the American Academy in Rome in 1998/99 and was a finalist for the Smithsonian National Design Award in 2011. The work of TLS has been featured in various museum exhibitions including “Shanghai Carpet”, in MoMA New York’s 2007 “Groundswell”, concerning international landscape design. Tom lectures widely and the work of TLS is published frequently. Tom serves the Bay Area community as a member of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission Design Review Board as well as the City of Richmond Design Review Board. A Richmond resident, Tom leads the firm’s pro bono planning work for the future of the 35 mile Richmond shoreline looking at the intersection of sea level rise and seismic stability planning. This year he was elected to the College of Fellows of the ASLA.
Kathryn Drinkhouse
Senior Associate
Technical Director
For over 20 years, Kathryn has collaborated with creative and talented professionals, bringing projects to fruition. She enjoys the opportunities, team work, problem solving, and new challenges presented by each project. Moving projects from design through documentation and construction, she has helped build a variety of environments including large regional parks; public urban parks; downtown streetscapes; high-rise mixed-use developments; major league ball parks; institutional and educational campuses; and single-family residences. She loves getting projects built and watching ideas bloom, come to life, and evolve into new spaces for enjoyment. After graduating from the University of Florida, Kathryn has been able to do this with Sasaki Associates; Patricia O’Brien Landscape Architecture; Peter Walker and Partners; Martha Schwartz/Ken Smith/David Meyer Landscape Architects; and is now three years into her tenure with Tom Leader Studio.
Pablo Alfaro
Associate
Pablo’s life has been always shaped by landscape. He was born during one of the biggest floods in Santiago de Chile in 1982, grew up next to the Andes, surfed in the cold waters of the Humboldt current, and studied architecture surrounded by nature in a colonial “casa Patio.” There he did his thesis about fog collection as a sustainable landscape infrastructure to provide water in the Atacama Desert. After obtaining his architecture degree in 2008 he worked in several important landscape infrastructure and public architecture projects in Chile, most of them funded by the Chilean government. His search for arid landscapes of fog brought him to California where he earned an MLA degree from UC Berkeley.
Pablo doesn’t believe in a division between architecture and landscape, hence his work consistently creates linkages between the two disciplines. He’s been awarded the Stephen Lenci Award for Architecture and Landscape Architecture Research, the Randy Hester Award for Ecological Democracy 2015, the ASLA Certificate of Honor, and the ASLA Honor Award 2016 for his project FOGFEST, featured on the cover of LAM Magazine.
Kushal Lachhwani
Associate
Born and raised in a billion plus country, India – Kushal is always in quest for inclusive and aesthetic landscapes which are able to pacify humans and other species living among chaotic cities and stressed out environments. Before studying landscape architecture, he was trained as an architect and since then has believed in eliminating the distinction between two fields. He takes his inspiration from works of Sri Lankan architect-Geoffrey Bawa and likes to design spaces indoor, outdoor and in between.
Kushal continuously educates himself with travel and has explored working in several geographies and projects including non-profit research in Delhi, school in Himalayas, urban plazas in Thailand, exhibitions in Netherlands and Market Street in San Francisco. He received a Bachelor of Architecture from School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi, India and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the Geraldine Scott Travel fellowship to study landscapes in motion (view from the train), ASLA certificate of Honor, CA (2016). He is also a TATA scholar and his work has been exhibited in 2012 Architecture Biennale, Rotterdam, Netherlands. He is a theater enthusiast; likes to cook Indian and Thai food and his favorite cities are Bombay, Bangkok and Barcelona.
Qianyu (QE) Li
Associate
After spending four years working in New England, Qianyu moved to California and joined TLS in 2019, bringing her prior experience on a wide range of projects from high-end residential, urban plaza, and campus planning. Qianyu holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from University of Illinois and a Bachelor of Landscape Gardening from Beijing Forestry University.
Qianyu feels most alive in the presence of the beautiful landscape for it triggers her to think why it is beautiful and how to carry the beauty through her work. Qianyu believes having a good design strategy to begin is important, but the process of investigation on sculpting space and material performance turns a creative idea into a satisfying result.
Qianyu is a licensed landscape architect in Maine and California. She loves tennis and has been playing USTA matches for many years.
Wanpeng Zu
Associate
Wanpeng is really interested in working as a landscape architect to care about the public space both locally and internationally from different aspects. With the background of Architecture and Urban Design, Wanpeng is used to working with the design methods to think about better relationships between people, program, and place by manipulating space according to both clients’ and citizen’s demands, and think about other social issues for a better, safer, more just and diverse life in the future. Wanpeng’s prior interests in taking photos and sculpture has given her deep knowledge of beauty and materials and an enthusiasm for details.
Wanpeng earned a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and a Bachelor of Urban Planning from Harbin Institute of Technology in China. Besides, her work has been exhibited during Amman Design Week in Jordan and on the Columbia University Website and Abstract.
Prior joining TLS, Wanpeng worked as an Architect at No Architecture, PLLC in NYC with multiple projects in Switzerland and NYC, where she figured out her role as an all-around designer and a fast-paced communicator. She also worked as an Urban Designer both in NYC and China.
Jiawen Chen
Associate
Born and raised in a scenic city of China, Hangzhou, Jiawen spent numerous weekend excursions into the mountainous lake circles. She thus grew up with a mystical connection to the sights, sounds, and smells of nature. She studied environmental design at Tongji University to explore the power of nature, followed by obtaining her MLA degree from the Harvard GSD.
Jiawen has a broad interest on topics from geopolitical territory to ecologies. Her work Korea Remade has been awarded the 2018 ASLA Student Award of Excellence. She was also awarded an ASLA Honor Award at the same year for her work Bloom! A Dynamic Landscape Biological System.
Jiawen loves Pikachu, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, and Unaju(grilled eel over rice).
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Zhaowei Yu
Project Designer
As a landscape designer, Zhaowei’s work often merges natural and cultural aesthetics with the care of social engagement. Through his academic and professional career, Zhaowei’s interest in productive landscape and social equity has afforded work and research in a variety of projects including ‘Book Farming: Addiction to plant ‘ and ‘From Meadowlands to Saltlands’.
Zhaowei earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from University of Virginia, and a Bachelor of Engineering at Landscape Architecture from Harbin Institute of Technology, China. Prior to joining TLS in 2019, He interned at KWLS in Charlottesville, 2.ink Studio in Portland, and Studio-MLA in Los Angeles. He is also a living space observer and photographer, intrigued by both natural and urban landscapes.
Yushan Li
Project Designer
Yushan holds a Master of Landscape Architecture from University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Agricultural Sciences in Horticulture from Zhejiang University. Before joining TLS in 2020, she interned at HOK New York office during the summer of 2019, focusing on her skills in urban design, campus planning, and BIM software.
Born and raised in a tropical city of China, her childhood was surrounded by huge trees and diverse flowers. This inspired her to study in horticulture and the aesthetic of planting. During her three years of studying at U Penn, she increased her skills in computer-aided topics from large-scale landscape and urban planning to parametric design and geospatial analysis.
Yushan enjoys many different kinds of exercise, craves delicious food, and listening to beautiful music.
Shanshan Bai
Project Designer
Shanshan earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Architecture from Tongji University in China.
Shanshan is interested in landscape design in various scale and types. Prior joining TLS, Shanshan worked at a landscape firm in NYC where her focus was on construction details and planting design of small-scale urban projects. While the study in University of Pennsylvania and internship in SWA Group, she has built up the interested in large scale landscape and urban design projects.
Shanshan is used to starting a project from the relationship of urban context and culture background and then comprehensively going from large framework to detail of design. What’s more, with the architecture background, she is also interested in space study and parametric design.
Sarah Chase
Studio Coordinator
Sarah has a background in art and love for organizing. She escaped from New Jersey over 15 years ago and settled on the west coast. She received her BFA from Alfred University and has experience managing offices for non-profit organizations, tech companies, and studio artists. She also enjoys painting, gardening, and hiking with her dogs Bug and Willa. Her interest in gardening and art is focused on pollinators and low water plants that support them.
Tom McMillan
Consulting Principal
Since completing his undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture at UC Berkeley in 1973, Tom has worked almost exclusively as an architect for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in San Francisco. Beginning there as a designer, he gradually shifted into work with a technical emphasis, eventually becoming a technical studio director. Tom honed his expertise in site development based on opportunities to work on several large projects with major site components requiring coordinating the architecture with civil engineers and landscape architects.
During his 35-year tenure at SOM, Tom led several award-winning projects. Tom recently left the firm to pursue other passions, which—in addition to cycling and fishing—include landscape architecture. In his role as a consulting principal, Tom brings his years of experience and technical skills as an architect to TLS’s projects, helping to ensure their workability, affordability, constructability, longevity, and delight.
TLS Shanghai
Ivan Valin
Associate / Shanghai Office General Manager
RLA
Ivan is currently based in Hong Kong, where he is helping to establish a regional TLS office. Before moving overseas Ivan worked at the TLS Berkeley studio, where he was involved in numerous projects including Railroad Park East Gate and the San Bernardino Courthouse. In Hong Kong, he was a Senior Associate at AECOM, where he directed high-profile government and commercial projects in Hong Kong and China.
Ivan is currently an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches graduate design studios and leads seminars on construction technology and strategic landscape master planning. His design and research work explore issues of water and landscape ecology in tropical cities, as well as landscape planning practices in peri-urban areas. Ivan’s work has been exhibited internationally with the National Building Museum, the International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam, and the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Biennale.
Ivan holds both a Master in Architecture degree and a Master in Landscape Architecture degree from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was the recipient of the G. Hoshi Prize and the J.K. Branner Traveling Fellowship.
Huan Zheng
Senior Associate
RA
Huan Zheng, RA joined TLS Shanghai in 2017. With background in both architecture and landscape architecture, Huan is interested in various project types and scales, and has always been seeking balance between built and natural environment.
Before settling in Shanghai, Huan was an Architect and Project Manager at Bercy Chen Studio in Austin, Texas. She has experience in designing and managing projects from concept phase through final occupancy. The highly integrated design/build approach helps her understand the challenges and possibilities in innovative design and construction. She has worked on a range of projects including master planning, residential, office, hospitality, public parks and private gardens, etc.
Huan is a Registered Architect in Texas, USA. She holds a Master in Landscape Architecture from University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor in Architecture from Zhejiang University in China.
Wenyan Wang
China Marketing Representative
Shanghai Office Administration Supervisor
Wenyan joined TLS Shanghai in 2019. Before that Wenyan worked as a Landscape Architect in both China and New Zealand for eight years. She has rich experiences in branding, marketing, project management and coordination with clients and design teams.
She enjoys working with small teams in a vivid and creative design studio, where she can help the team to make the work life enjoyable and pleasant.
Yang Yu
Technical Leader, Asia Practice
Yang has been engaged in the landscape design for more than ten years in several well-known landscape design institutes in China. With plenty management experience in project operation, Yang accumulated dozens of public projects, commercial and residential projects experience from concept to construction stage.
After years of design practice, Yang has accumulated abundant knowledge of aesthetics, construction, materials, and technology. He also familiar with codes of practice and strive for perfection in technical details.
Yang always willing to explore the spiritual core of the site, grasping the project scale and quality. By seeking new solutions in the process of design and construction, he brings more profound connotation to the project.
Shuping Ye
Senior Planting Designer
Shuping worked as a Planting Designer for nearly 15 years. She shows her design understanding and site control abilities in a unique way especially in planting design. Bring her specialty in site management and landscape design in public space, parks, planning projects. With plenty working experiences of domestic landscape engineering company and overseas design company, she manages her knowledge and experiences to create unique planting chapters of landscape design.
Wei Fan
Associate
Wei Fan has a deep interest in the role of landscape architecture in shaping and changing urban public life. He has always been interested in the interaction between design, phenomenon, and theoretic interpretation. He holds a PhD in Landscape Architecture from Tongji University.
Si Zheng
Associate
Si enjoys working at multiple scales from designing street sculpture plaza to planning former military airbase. What attracts him about landscape architecture is the diversity and comprehensiveness, he is passionate about learning and researching the topographical, cultural, political and social attributes of the sites and developing design decisions from them. With prior work and study experience in Shanghai, Seattle, San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo and Berlin, his research approaches include but are not limited to urbanism, landscape and art, urban public space, brownfield revitalization, airport landscape and post-military landscape.
Si holds a master degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Washington.
Mengyao Xing
Project Designer
Mengyao’s personal background focusing on the field of Landscape Architecture could be described as a journey of searching and defining the nodes between the different fields. Instead of being limited by exclusive space problems, she chose to focus on the relationship between the Landscape architecture and its relative domains.
She believes that “Interdisciplinarity is the future of Landscape Architect’s profession”, She constantly tries to put this principle into practice through diverse projects at different scales and dimensions.
She holds a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Leibniz University Hannover in Germany and a BA in Landscape Architecture from Nanjing Forestry University in China.
Ying Wei
Project Designer
With her professional and international landscape and sustainable design background, Ying joined TLS in 2019. She previously worked in Ramboll Studio Dreiseitl for 5 years and studied in Birmingham City University with master’s degree in UK.
Ying is good at using the European advanced technology for sustainable landscape design, ecological design and bio-engineering design in Chinese projects. Her strong background applied in public projects and green framework design, from streetscape scope to river landscape design in Tianjin, Changchun, Shenzhen.
Wenlin Zhou
Shanghai Office Administrator
Wenlin joined TLS Shanghai in 2020. She has proactive working attitude and optimistic personality. Before her career in TLS, she had worked as Admin officer in 4A company for 3 years. She is good at organizing activities with creative ideas.
Wenlin never neglects any details with enthusiasm of life. To join a famous Landscape Architecture company as TLS is a very fresh start to her. She is happy to support in logistics section and create a comfortable working environment to team members.
The Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury finalized the Transparency in Coverage Rule (TiC) requiring health insurers and employer self-insured health plans to create a member-facing price comparison tool and post publicly-available machine-readable files by July 1, 2022. These files must include in-network negotiated payment rates and historical out-of-network charges for covered items and services, including prescription drugs.
The Kaiser machine-readable files can be found here: https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/front-door/machine-readable.
The Anthem machine-readable files can be found here: https://www.anthem.com/ca/machine-readable-file/search
The Sutter machine-readable files can be found here: Sutter Health – Healthcare Cost Transparency