Company Profile

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Grace Design Associates, Inc. is an award-winning, full service landscape design and build company with over twenty-five years of experience designing and building world-class gardens.

Our projects range from small residential gardens to large estates, commercial projects and community works. We focus on creating gardens in and around Santa Barbara, where we live, work and play; consequently, most Grace gardens are located in Santa Barbara, Montecito, Hope Ranch, Summerland, Santa Ynez Valley and Ojai. Life being what it is, however, and temptation calling from time to time, we have also designed and built gardens in Portland, Oregon; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and throughout Southern California in Malibu, Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Ventura, and the coastal cities of San Luis Obispo county.

The rich and storied horticultural and architectural history of Santa Barbara and its long-standing commitment to conservation, combined with its unique geology, diverse native habitats and wide range of microclimates provide a broad range of extraordinary design opportunities. As a result, our projects range from extremely naturalistic to highly urban, contemporary to traditional, sublime to whimsical.

Our forté is distinctive design executed with the values of old world craftsmanship. We strive to create gardens that connect with the unique character of the site, sit seamlessly in the environment, blend harmoniously with the architecture and reflect the client's aesthetic. Every garden is custom-designed and custom-built. For each project, be it large or small, all materials -- including plants, trees, stone, fountains, statuary, garden furniture, and garden accessories -- are hand-selected by the firm's designers from the top growers and suppliers in the west. The result is a one-of-a-kind garden perfectly tailored to the client, the architecture, the site and the environment.

Grace Design Associates is a leader in green design and sustainable construction methodologies and practices. Green before green was fashionable, we were local pioneers of the team approach to project design and construction. Working intimately with the client, architect, interior designer, general contractor, engineers, specialized trades and other design and construction professionals from project inception through completion and ongoing maintenance, we make sure that the project has the lightest footprint possible and makes the best use of the site, architecture, client lifestyle, building systems, construction materials and other resources.

Grace Design Associates has been featured on HGTV's, "Landscapers' Challenge" and Discovery Channel's sustainable design show "Greenovate". ABC's reality show "Momma's Boys" was filmed at a coastal Santa Barbara estate with gardens designed and built by the firm. Grace Design Associates' work has also appeared in numerous regional and national publications, including Traditional Home, Better Homes and Gardens, Garden Design, Sunset, California Homes, Garden Ideas, California Home + Design, Santa Barbara Seasons and Ventura Life & Style. The firm won The Santa Barbara Contractors Association Builder of the Year for Best Landscape and Hardscape award in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Recent residential landscape projects have been awarded the Montecito Beautiful Award and two categories of Santa Barbara Beautiful Awards. Grace Design Associates' gardens have been featured on numerous garden tours, including the prestigious Ojai Valley Garden Tour, the Garden Lanes Garden Tour, Gardens of Garden Street and the Parade of Green Building, and Built Green Santa Barbara Expo Conference and Tour. In addition, gardens by Grace Design Associates have been the setting for a number of fundraising events for local non-profits, including CAMA (Community Arts Music Association), Domestic Violence Solutions (DVS), and the University of California at Santa Barbara's Arts and Lectures with celebrated cellist YoYo Ma.

Margaret Grace

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Margie Grace, founder and one of the principals of the award-winning Santa Barbara-based firm Grace Design Associates, Inc., is a landscape designer and a licensed landscape contractor. An avid traveler and perpetual student of the world's gardens, she has made her own garden in Spain, Australia and New Zealand over the past three decades, prior to settling in Santa Barbara. She prides herself on bringing the values of old world craftsmanship and a sophisticated design sense to her work on gardens, large and small, residential and commercial.

Margie's formal training is in the life and earth sciences. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in biology with a minor in geology, awarded in 1981 from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Margie has also studied landscape design and illustration extensively at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Landscape Services

Grace Design Associates is a landscape design and build firm headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. They provide a full range of professional landscape services, including:

  • Site surveying and analysis
  • Landscape design: traditional to modern, naturalistic to formal in style -- the landscape design is client-driven with a keen sensibility for the site, the architecture, the community and the environment
  • Landscape plans: demolition, grading, drainage, hardscape (all built elements such as a patio, walk, path, fence, wall, driveway, fountain, pool, pond, pergola, arbor, gazebo, outdoor kitchen, fire pit, etc.), irrigation, planting, landscape lighting, audio/visuals, garden furniture and site accessories.
  • Project permits and agency review
  • Landscape installation: Grace Design Associates builds what they design, assuring the highest integrity and quality of the finished garden.
  • Sustainable landscape design and building: cutting edge green construction practices, methodologies and materials; permaculture; water conservation; integrated pest management; rainwater harvesting and distribution; green roofs; xeriscaping; drought tolerant planting; fire safe landscape design; gray water systems; edible landscapes
  • Horticultural maintenance of Grace-built gardens.
  • Landscape Consultation