People

Joseph Huettl is a California licensed landscape architect with a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley. With over thirty years of experience in the field, Joseph has designed a wide range of residential, commercial, and institutional projects throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and Northern California. As President of HLA, Joseph has won numerous awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects. His work has been published in newspapers and magazines both nationally and internationally.

Previously as a Principal of Huettl Thuilot Associates, he played a key role in the design and construction of many innovative projects including Sunset Western Garden Award winners. Prior to forming Huettl Thuilot Associates, Joseph had designed and built hundreds of residential and light commercial landscapes, with projects featured in several magazine and book publications. He was a finalist in the Diablo Valley All Wars Memorial competition and as a student at UC Berkeley, he received the Fred Barlow Award for design excellence and graduated with High Honors.

Joseph firmly believes that “in order to know how to design, one must first know how to live.” He will not bore you (on paper at least) with his numerous interests and activities that could run several paragraphs.

Sue Chan-Huettl holds a Bachelor of Arts in Landscape Architecture as well as a Master of City Planning degree from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to pursuing a career in planning, she worked for various landscape architectural firms both in California and Oregon that focused on a range of projects from residential design to the design of new communities to transportation corridors. As a city planner, Sue has worked on numerous projects across California, the U.S. and internationally, that focused on developing pedestrian and transit-oriented development plans and policies. After almost 20 years as a planner, she decided to return to smaller-scale design and joined Huettl Landscape Architecture in 2012. At HLA, Sue participates in the design process as well as the running of the firm.

Growing up in a modern home in Santiago, Chile influenced Sue’s love of warm, contemporary design. Her decision to study landscape architecture was driven by her love of art and drawing, combined with her hopes for environmental sustainability. Sue loves spending time with her kids, family and pets, as well as being involved in the larger community. She enjoys drawing, skiing and hiking. At work, she’s the “techie” of the group, and thoroughly dislikes dealing with business insurance.

Claudia Hottmann is a Bay Area local with a professional background in art and carpentry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Art: Drawing & Painting from San Francisco State University, as well as a Certificate in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley Extension.

Her love of landscape, nature, art, and the technical aspects of design and building, along with a supplemental education in geography & human environmental studies, brought her to the profession of landscape architecture.

She finds that designing places in the landscape is both an aesthetic and a technical challenge that she thoroughly enjoys; a perfect nexus of opportunities to reveal, and challenges to meet. Being part of a design team and collaborating with clients to create beautiful & enduring spaces in the California landscape is continually rewarding and gratifying.

Claudia joined HLA in 2016 and manages both residential and commercial landscape projects. She contributes to all aspects of the project evolution, from site analysis to design to construction detailing and documentation.