[company history]

Natyam Schraven and Britton Shepard have been working in the landscaping industry together for ten years. In the summer of 1999 they pooled their talents and resources to establish élan landscape design & build inc.

Natyam was born and raised on a farm in the south of Holland (wearing wooden shoes and picking tulips, just kidding…). He obtained degrees in botany and horticulture before moving to the Pacific Northwest in 1981. For the past 20 years he has worked on numerous large and small scale landscape projects in the Seattle area. Natyam also has a successful nature photography business and all of the photography on this website is his work.

Britton is from Boulder, Colorado. After earning a bachelor of arts degree from Pomona College he came to Seattle in 1991 and began working in landscape construction. Work exchanges in Ireland and Japan further shaped his skills as a stonemason and carpenter. A good organizer on the jobsite, Britton has, in the past, been referred to as the "pushy one".


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