A small studio for Hill Country landscapes.
Founded in 2018 by Mara Whitfield, RLA. Based in East Austin. Six people, one crew, one philosophy: design landscapes that look like they belong in Texas, then build them to outlast the install.
Mara Whitfield, RLA
Mara founded Greenline in 2018 after a decade at larger firms – including four years at a leading landscape architecture studio in San Francisco and three at an established Austin design-build practice.
She trained at the UT Austin School of Architecture, where she focused on Hill Country ecology and regional materials. She has been designing with native Texas plant palettes for fifteen years.
Her practice is built on three convictions: design with what thrives here, design rooms not yards, and obsess over the parts you'll never see. Every project that goes out the door bears her signature.
Real work, real hours.
Reviewing the site plan on a Westlake hillside before the dry-stack wall goes in.
Mid-stroke on a Tarrytown courtyard sketch. Every plan starts on tracing paper.
Three principles that show up in every project.
Native by default
We design with what thrives in Central Texas. Period. If a client wants tropicals or fescue lawn, we’ll tell them what it costs in water, replacements, and frustration – then design something better.
Outdoor rooms, not just yards
A yard is the space left over around a house. An outdoor room is designed: fireplace, pergola, kitchen, all part of the same composition.
Built to outlast the install
The pretty plants are the easy part. We obsess over drainage, soil prep, base, edge restraint. A project that looks good in year ten – that’s the standard, not the floor.
What working with us looks like.
Site visit
We walk the property, talk through use, check drainage and sun, and leave with a fixed-fee design proposal – usually within a week.
Master plan
2D plan view, material palette, native plant list, phased budget. You see it before we touch a shovel. Design fee credits 100% toward the build.
Build
Our crew, not subs. We handle hardscape, planting, irrigation, lighting end-to-end. Most projects finish in 4–10 weeks.
Year-one care
Walk-throughs at 30 days, 6 months, and 12 months. Anything that doesn’t establish, we replace. 5-year warranty on hardscape.
Want to talk about your project?
We’re a small studio. Replies come from a real person – usually Mara or Tasha. We’ll have a conversation before anyone gets a quote.
Seven things we build in Austin.
Design-build under one roof. Limestone, native plants, real engineering on every project – from a $25k native garden to a full-yard build.
