2026 Landscape Design: Katharine Webster

Landscape design Katharine Webster’s contribution to the 2025 San Francisco Decorator Showcase channels the life experiences that underscore her compelling work and demonstrate why she garners this year’s California Home + Design award for landscape design.

The Pacific Heights home’s tiny rear yard was barren apart from some tree ferns that arced over a fence and a circular limestone staircase; the Showcase requested that the center of the space be left open to accommodate guests. “Those things formed my approach,” Webster explains.

Underlining her philosophy is her grandmother’s propensity for repurposing things. It’s there in the sweeping radiuses of re-claimed cobblestone that ground the garden; the rescued slab that became a bar in one corner; and the discarded stone that forms the table’s base in another. The crevassed stools that surround that table, designed in conjunction with Bartholomew Kraus, nod to her apprenticeship with a sculptor. The juxtaposition of exuberant greenery with neatly clipped spheres acknowledges both a childhood spent roaming the wild Canadian island where her family’s summer home is located and the manicured public spaces she encountered as a teenager during a sojourn in Switzerland. The result is both calming and convivial. “You can take a small space and make a big impact.” Agreed.

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