Los Angeles

Los Angeles represents a natural extension of Tong Design Associates’ practice beyond Orange County. The city’s extraordinary diversity of residential architecture—from Spanish Colonial Revival in Hancock Park to mid-century modern in the Hollywood Hills to contemporary new construction in the Arts District—demands landscape designers who can adapt their approach to radically different contexts while maintaining a consistent standard of design quality. Our Los Angeles work has focused on residential properties in the Westside, South Bay, and San Fernando Valley, where homeowners invest in outdoor living as a genuine extension of their homes. The city’s climate allows for an impressively broad plant palette: tropical species thrive in sheltered west-facing exposures, while drought-tolerant California natives flourish on south-facing slopes. We design with this botanical range in mind, creating planting compositions that feel lush without relying on excessive water. Los Angeles’s permitting environment is more complex than most Orange County jurisdictions, with specific requirements for grading, stormwater management, and protected tree species. We navigate the Department of Building and Safety processes and work within the city’s Low Impact Development standards to deliver designs that meet regulatory requirements. For properties in hillside zones, we address the additional considerations of geological stability, fire hazard severity zones, and view corridor protections that shape what is buildable on any given site.