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.
Sarita Govani
Senior Associate
Sarita has over 20 years of experience encompassing all phases and diverse types of landscape architecture and planning projects. With a comprehensive education and background in architecture, urban design & planning, landscape architecture, and fine arts, she has cultivated a versatile skill set enabling her to engage in site approach and development at both macro and micro levels.
Conceptualizing through the lens of current culture, she approaches place-making through various avenues resulting in a diverse skill set and expertise in neighborhood development and housing; transit design: campuses and plazas; site-specific art; as well as strategy and communications. She has extensive experience in all aspects of landscape architectural projects, from conceptual design and master-planning through design development, construction documentation and construction observation.
Driven by a long-standing passion for creating inclusive exterior spaces, Sarita’s design process is guided by the belief that outdoor environments have the power to enhance the mental and physical well-being of their users. While each project sparks various creative solutions, they are grounded in realistic parameters.
Jiawen Chen
Associate Principal
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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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.
Luis Lu
Project Designer
Luis earned a Master of Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley and has experience working at a high-end residential design firm in the Bay Area before joining TLS. As a landscape designer and a pedestrian, Luis has deep interest in art and exploring walkable urban environment. Outside of work, he enjoys mountain biking and making terrarium.
Justin Thomas
Project Designer
Coming from India, Justin was introduced to the social and environmental complexities of a country through architecture. His undergraduate thesis relied heavily on landscape and urban design strategies to revive an ancient aqueduct system in a drought prone region. Since then, Justin has been trying to get involved in projects that integrate natural systems in urban environments. For this to happen, he is convinced that the collaboration of design professionals with local governments is the way forward.
Post working on small urban design projects in Mumbai, Justin completed his master’s in landscape architecture and environmental planning from the University of California, Berkeley. Justin is the 2022 recipient of the LAF Honor Scholarship in Memory of Joe Lalli, FASLA. He was also part of the group that reached the finals in the 2023 ULI Hines Competition and a 2023 Olmsted Scholar Finalist. After his degree, he worked with Professor Anna Brand to design an exhibition called ‘Accumulating Landscapes of Race and Syncopating Infrastructures of Joy in New Orleans, Louisiana. During his spare time, Justin is a recreational soccer league player and enjoys cooking for friends and family.
Akshat Sharma
Studio Coordinator
From developing an OS at 13 years to innovating lucrative ERP solutions for SMBs, Akshat has been able to achieve things well beyond his years. The youngest on our team, he holds a passion for finance and is a man of numbers. He enjoys working with new technology and picks up innovative tech solutions quickly and effortlessly.
Akshat’s entrepreneurial pursuits led him to start his own organization, Asten Technology. Asten has made significant strides in the healthcare industry, collaborating with noteworthy startups. Its team currently comprises of professionals with experience at various Fortune 500 companies.
Currently pursuing a degree in finance, Akshat is focused on helping firms unlock the potential of advanced technologies and achieve sustainable growth with tailored solutions.
Cars, engines, and the motorsport is what drives Akshat beyond the workplace. He enjoys karting and is an avid fan of Formula 1. He believes the sport’s technical precision, innovations, and technological advancements to be extremely fascinating.
TLS Shanghai
Wanpeng Zu
Design Director
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.
Huan Zheng
Director
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.
Shuang Zhao
Design Director
Wei Fan
Design Director
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.
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.
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.
Jingwei Jiang was born and raised in Chengdu, China. She pursued her Bachelor degree of Landscape Architecture in University of Washington, and further investigated in urban design and landscape planning field in University of Virginia. She believed that design is the most advanced language for people to communicate and learn from each other.
Prior join TLS, she had experience in small scale real estate landscape designs and urban design projects. And she is always exploring…
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