Steven Vandora is the award winning landscape contractor and designer who has been quietly reshaping and planting southern California and beyond for over a quarter century. He's one of those under the radar types that has a list of clients that includes most of those one word famous household names we all know, as well and heads of the Conglomorate companies that employs said names.
Born and raised in Savannah – Americas first planned city or as John Berendt – author of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" says' Savannah is the most house conscious city in America "Steven early on developed an innate sense of place, propriety and proportion as it related to people being in and using gardens- both public and private.
Starting his early career in Savannah as an assistant set dresser on films he was quickly grabbed by a production company who recognized talent when they saw it.
Then beginning with a small simple interior plant maintenance firm in 1982 at the urging of Marty Baum – a legendary man, also known for spotting talent. Soon after realizing that approximately only 32 plants that grew indoors – it was time to broaden his palette and begin to till the soil and subsequently enrolled in UCLA's Landscape Architecture program. Here he traveled abroad and experienced an epiphany at Blenheim Palace in England and especially at Vaux Le Vicomte in France, of just what man were capable of creating. The harmonies of light, scent, sound, color, texture and life, all basically could be enriched and given to noble inspirations, whether in a palace in Europe or a small balcony in Beverly Hills.
Says Steven Vandora – in France in the 17th century with chaos reigning outside the palace walls you have Descartes and the age of reason and you see the need for order that Le Notre expressed using the science of mathematics being reflected in the well ordered and clipped rhythmic parterres at Vaux then in the 18the century you have – 'the best named ever' Capability Brown, who said no, we are not about that, we are about nature and ripped out all the parterres and pulled a lake and lawn with sheep roaming right up to the front door and said, this – this is what we are about.
Combining both those schools of thought for over 25 years now, winning walls of awards, saying no to offers of TV fame, he has been replanting and bringing to fruition his and his very choice clients vision to the grand estates and a few world class Hotels as well as unique properties all over the Southern California terrain.
Source by Mike Zhmudikov