Premium Landscaping in UBC

The University Endowment Lands and the Point Grey tip form one of Vancouver’s most distinctive residential settings: an affluent, academic community wrapped almost entirely by the second-growth forest of Pacific Spirit Regional Park. Properties here tend to be large, generously treed, and quiet, with the cool, green atmosphere of the woods reaching right up to the back door. Landscaping in this environment is less about imposing a design on the land and more about working gracefully with the forest that is already there.

Designing for the forest edge

The single biggest factor on these lots is shade. Tall conifers cast deep, shifting light, their roots compete aggressively for water and nutrients, and the soil tends to be moist and acidic from generations of leaf and needle litter. Rather than fight this, we lean into it. Our crews build shade gardens with ferns, hellebores, hydrangeas, Japanese maples, and acid-loving broadleaf evergreens, planted in naturalistic drifts that feel native to the setting. Where drainage or compaction is a problem near established trees, we address it carefully without disturbing critical root zones.

Services that fit an academic, wooded community

Beyond planting, these homes benefit from thoughtful hardscape that respects the natural palette: natural-stone walkways, cedar decks and pergolas, subtle landscape lighting to extend the long, dark Northwest evenings, and secluded patios that function as outdoor rooms beneath the canopy. Privacy is usually easy to achieve here because the forest does much of the work; we reinforce it with evergreen hedging and layered understory screening.

Stylistically, restraint suits this neighborhood. A naturalistic, West Coast woodland aesthetic, built from stone, cedar, and forest-appropriate plants, sits far more comfortably here than a formal or high-contrast design. The result is a landscape that feels like a calm, cultivated clearing within Pacific Spirit Park rather than an interruption of it.