With a network built through years of shared work and trusted relationships, the practice draws on a broad range of experience while maintaining a hands-on approach from concept through completion.
TERRA
Lead Researcher
RICK
RLA | Principal
TOM
Lead Researcher
RICK TAYLOR
RLA | FOUNDING PRINCIPAL
Rick’s early years in his family’s midwestern rustbelt gardens proved to be the foundation of his love and deep relationship with the horticultural world and fascination with the built environment. As a painter, iris breeder, and award-winning flower gardener, his mother immersed him in gardens and soil development at a very young age.
One of the many impactful experiences was his time at Macinelli / Golden in the mountains of Southern Oregon expanding the idea of “landscape” through oak woodland restoration and rural homestead development. Working with local tribes restoring ecosystems while re-establishing native medicinal and edible plant communities and developing sustainable ag systems on rural properties.
This led into a fifteen-year career running a design/build/maintain landscape firm focusing on practical implementation of sustainable practices in the residential landscape and outdoor living environments in Sonoma County, CA.
As an educator, he has written curriculum and acted as a founding instructor for Sonoma State University’s Sustainable Landscape Professional Certificate program, developed curriculum and instructed programs focused on ecological landscape design and implementation skills, sat on municipal design review boards, collegiate design reviews, and is currently teaching design and hand drafting at Santa Rosa Junior College.
RTLA is a Landscape Architecture firm with decades of construction knowledge backing its visionary designs.
“The size of the project does not matter to us. The depth in which we can create a meaningful impact on the lives of our clients, does.” – Rick Taylor
