Expertise: Landscape architecture; Open space and recreation equity; Landscape sustainability – water quality, water resources, habitat planning; Open space and land use; Design of parks and open spaces; School campus design

Esther Margulies, ASLA is a licensed Landscape Architect and founder of The Office of the Designed Landscape (OotDL). As a practice leader at nationally recognized firms she has led multi-disciplinary integrated teams on public realm and private sector projects including urban transit, park and mixed use projects. Her work has included award winning cultural preservation, urban storm water, K-12, planning, higher education and park projects. She is a long time advocate of a revitalized Los Angeles River serving as the co-chair of one of the first professional design charretes to re-imagine the river in the Studio City area in 1997, and the co-founder of The Los Angeles River Public Art Project.

Esther is a part time lecturer in the University of Southern California Master of Landscape Architecture program where she teaches graduate level studio, theory, and construction courses. Ms. Margulies received her undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture from Cornell University and her Master of Landscape Architecture degree from The Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She was appointed by Mayor Eric Garcetii as a commissioner on the West Los Angeles Planning Commission. She is a former board member of the USC Architecture Guild. 

Ms. Margulies is licensed to practice landscape architecture in California and Massachusetts.