Dr. Steven Sandifer is a designer, researcher and educator living in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Los Angeles, California.
He studied sustainable architectural technology with Baruch Givoni, Murray Milne and Richard Schoen at the University of California, Los Angeles where he earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Architecture. His dissertation was based on a series of experiments and field studies on the use of the landscape to reduce building energy use, including studies of the effects of vine shading on walls and on vine shaded spaces adjacent to buildings, vegetated roofs, as well as pond systems and constructed wetlands. He has presented papers on these experiments at ASES, ISES, PLEA, TIA, and BESS conferences.
He is currently a Lecturer and Research Associate at the Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies, California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, as well as a Lecturer in the Architecture program at Pomona. He continues to do research on regenerative landscape and building systems. Design projects include residential and commercial landscapes and residential architectural remodeling projects in Southern California and the Pacific Northwest. Among these are a Ventura County Fire station landscape conversion using native plants for water conservation, numerous residential wildlife gardens, a nine acre community park of native plants that were planted and are maintained by community volunteers.
