Featured Designer | Guillermo Rivero

May 2025
Owner and Designer of Vista Yakima Landscape Design
Member since 2011

Guillermo Rivero, Owner and Designer of Vista Yakima Landscape Design. Photo: Karl Graf

This quarter Guillermo tells us about changing careers from working as an audio engineer living in Miami, FL to becoming a landscape designer and business owner in Yakima, WA.

When did you start designing gardens? Tell us about your path from then to now.

My journey as a Landscape Designer started in 2010, when I summoned the courage to change course after many years as an audio engineer in Miami, FL. Determined to follow my intuition and love for nature and plants, I enrolled in the Anna Gresham Landscape Design School, which was based in New Zealand and offered an intensive online diploma program.

The program required students to apply the lessons to real sites, which gave me a solid grasp of site surveying, plant identification, concept planning, color theory and development of hardscape and planting plans for a variety of projects. The challenge during this period was to juggle a full-time job while completing assignments on weekends and during late night study sessions.

When I finally graduated in 2013, I formed my first landscape design company in Miami while still working full time. This allowed me to start gathering experience with small residential projects. In 2014 I relocated to Yakima with my family, where I have continued with commitment to helping our clients achieve their dream outdoor living spaces and inspiring gardens.

How would you describe your design style?

My design style is always guided by the lifestyle and needs of my clients. Over the years, I’ve learned that each project is an opportunity to create beauty and harmony—whether it is helping a family have a functional space for their kids to play, designing a garden for healing, or an outdoor space for entertaining friends and family.

I like my gardens to feel alive during all seasons, especially in winter. I achieve this by using bold colors and textures in different ways. I always look for projects to which I can impart a sense of mystery and excitement—where people are invited to discover secret garden rooms, to meander through paths full of unique plants and trees, or to just to sit down on a bench, by the shade of a tree to think and enjoy the present moment.

From left: Fall planting scheme in Zillah Photo: Guillermo Rivero Winter color at Heatherwood. Photo: Karl Graf

Who inspires you and your designs?

My main source of inspiration is nature. I like to go for a hike when I need to come up with ideas for a project. I get a feeling of freedom and connection when I’m fully immersed in a natural environment that resonates with me on a deep level. I enjoy looking at ancient rock formations covered in moss or showing a colorful patina, listening to the sound of water trickling down a creek, the beauty of mature trees and their branch structures, perfectly married to their understory. I know that no matter how much I try I won’t be able to replicate it in my own designs.

Landscape design books by legends such as Russell Page, Adrian Bloom, Piet Oudolf, Laurie Olin, Katsuo Saito, Roberto Burle Marx, Raymond Jungles, John Brookes and many others provide an almost infinite source of inspiration when I need to find answers for a design challenge.

View from ‘The Perch’ at Heatherwood. Photo: Karl Graf

Is your focus design? Or do you also manage installation, build, and maintain gardens?

I focus on design, and I collaborate with many landscape contractors to ensure my designs are implemented according to the plans. I have found that if I leave the installation of a garden to a landscape contractor that has no connection to the essence of a project, or clear understanding of the design, the project feels like it is no longer my creation and never gets to be what I had carefully crafted with a client.

After each project is completed, I help clients get acquainted with their new garden and the seasonal maintenance needs. Some clients like to take on pruning, deadheading and fertilizing tasks, while others prefer to delegate all garden maintenance to a company. I always make sure there’s a long-term maintenance program developed for each project.

Clockwise from top left: Relaxing backyard in Yakima, old farm equipment surrounded by colorful plants in fall, backyard gravel path leading to a firepit area in Yakima and weathering steel water feature nestled in a raised planting bed. All photos: Guillermo Rivero

What experiences as a designer have you found to be most challenging?

Communication issues can strain a relationship with a client and create a situation in which a project is no longer enjoyable. I believe clear communication is paramount to successful projects. Each client is unique and most of the time, an approach that may have worked for one client doesn’t work with another.

I think there’s a small window of opportunity during each initial consultation with a new client to be the best listener I can be, to try to understand what they want to achieve and then see if a project is truly meant for me. I do this mental assessment during all my consultations and let my intuition help me decide whether I engage with a project or not.

View from overlook at Heatherwood. Photo: Karl Graf

What experiences have you found to be most rewarding?

That feeling after a project has been installed and my clients tell me how much they are enjoying their garden, or how beautiful the plants look and how grateful they are for my help incorporating everything they asked for.

I enjoy seeing a garden evolve over the years. Noticing how the trees start providing shade for a seating area, or looking at the birds flocking to a group of serviceberry trees to take the tasty fruit while the clients watch and enjoy from under their new pergola, are simple pleasures that matter a lot to me.

Another aspect I find very rewarding is getting clients by referral after they visit one of my gardens and decide to contact me because they felt so inspired by what I did on a certain project.

Describe a typical design project and your process.

Each project starts with an initial call, email or even text asking for help with a new project or renovation of an existing landscape. After that initial contact, we set up an onsite consultation, during which I walk with the clients through the areas they want to work with. We discuss the potentials and limitations of the site, listen to their needs and vision for the spaces.

Once I’m hired and the design process starts, I decide if I need to engage a professional surveyor if the site is too complex. After the survey has been done, I create a concept plan, review with clients until they are satisfied, then go to produce the hardscape, planting plan and any 3D renderings if requested, to better visualize the project.

Once the design has been completed, I help clients with the bidding process, until we find a suitable contractor to install the project. I like to kick start the installation of each project with a meeting with the selected landscape contractor.

Rock arrangement in a Japanese-inspired garden in Terrace Heights. Photo: Guillermo Rivero

Hillside Garden in Cowiche. Photo: Guillermo Rivero

Tell us about one of your favorite or most memorable projects.

In 2018, I started working on a project in Selah, which has provided me with some of the most valuable lessons in my career as a landscape designer. Heatherwood, as my clients named the garden, is an ongoing project that has been installed in several phases and continues to challenge me each year.

This garden has a Japanese-inspired area, crabapple collection, two specimen conifer areas, several garden rooms with different themes, an oak collection, a woodland containing a redbud collection and multiple secret paths that meander throughout the garden. There are comfortable chairs located at key spots where the Selah Ridge, framed by trees and shrubs, can be seen in the distance, many relaxing spots to enjoy a glass of wine or a warm coffee on a chilly morning. A patio with pergola and firepit overlook a vast meadow that provides color, texture and movement throughout the year. I look forward to enjoying the evolution of this garden for years to come.

Heatherwood, entrance to Japanese garden area. Photo: Karl Graf

Guillermo Rivero
Landscape Designer
Vista Yakima Landscape Design
www.vistayakima.com
Follow us: @guillermoriverogardens