About
Coastal Vista Design is a Sanibel-based landscape architecture studio established by Leigh Gevelinger in 2016. Our studio's approach is rooted in deep appreciation for south Florida ecosystems, as well as a thorough knowledge of the unique challenges of coastal subtropical landscape design. We guide clients through a collaborative design process to achieve distinctive landscapes which fulfill client visions and celebrate coastal Florida living. Our studio's experience with all phases of design, from permitting to installation, positions us to offer exceptional service and successfully realize our client's visions for their properties. We engage with other professionals - including architects, custom home builders, and landscape contractors - to create remarkable outdoor spaces that celebrate south Florida coastal living. In addition to our built work's contribution to the public commons, Coastal Vista Design actively gives back to the community through involvement in charity sporting events and financial donations to local organizations.
Here are a few of the organizations we support.
Future Landscape Architects of America
Clean Drinking Water For Developing Countries
Meet Leigh
Leigh Gevelinger, PLA, is a Florida licensed landscape architect with over 15 years of experience in the landscape architecture profession. As a Wisconsin native, she brings a practical sensibility to the landscape design and installation process. Her aim is to create sensitive design solutions that achieve client goals while respecting the unique landscapes that draw people to southwest Florida.
Leigh is equipped with a robust toolkit of professional achievements and experience. She graduated from University of Wisconsin Madison with a B.S. in Landscape Architecture in 2007. She received LEED AP certification in 2008. Following several years of professional practice in Wisconsin, Leigh moved to southwest Florida and has been working as a landscape architecture professional since 2010. She achieved licensure as a Florida Landscape Architect in 2013. She is also a City of Sanibel licensed landscape contractor.
Leigh is heavily involved in both professional and community service. Leigh’s professional service includes standing as ASLA southwest Florida section chair (2015-2017) and conference chair (2017-2018). As Section Chair, Leigh organized SW Florida ASLA’s First Annual Golf Tournament which helped raised over $9,000 for the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Scholarship Fund. Leigh’s community service began while she was still a student, volunteering in design and construction for underprivileged communities in Wisconsin, Montana, and Mississippi. Today, she donates to local organizations by competing in local community races and triathlons such as FISH of Sanibel, Sanibel CHR, and the Community Cooperative. Through Coastal Vista Design, Leigh has also been able to provide financial support for Charity Water and Keep Lee County Beautiful.
Meet Caleb
Caleb Melchior is a landscape architect, duly-licensed in Tennessee and Florida, with a focus on planting design, materials, and landscape representation. Caleb earned his Masters of Landscape Architecture from Kansas State University. His experience includes working with P. Allen Smith & Associates to create fine gardens & estates throughout the southeast, as well as ASA Engineering on public and commercial projects in Chattanooga. Caleb is heavily involved with design communication. His work is regularly published in national and international publications such as The American Gardener, Horticulture, and Land8. When not in studio, Caleb’s out exploring – nature preserves and run-down strip malls are his preferred haunts. Caleb’s also a cook, pop culture nerd, and gif enthusiast.
Meet Andrea
Andrea Van Buren is a Florida native, born in Coconut Grove near Miami. She has since lived in St. Croix, USVI, the Florida Keys and now Sanibel. Having lived in 4 very different locations all very closely associated with their surrounding tropical waters, she is very fond of the outdoors and has great respect for what the landscape provides for everything on earth.
Andrea has spent the last 10 years as a co-owner of a custom home building company located in Fort Myers with a client base in Sanibel and Captiva, providing exterior and interior design services and project management. Her new role at Coastal Visa Design is to support the design team and to facilitate design and selections for outdoor living spaces.
In her spare time Andrea enjoys working in her (native) garden, biking along Sanibel’s shaded pathways, watercolor painting and sailing in our beautiful Gulf waters.
Meet Alain - Landscape Designer
Alain Carrazana was born in Cuba and immigrated to the United States at the age of 17 with his family. He proudly served in the United States Navy for six years as a hospital corpsman. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Social and Health Services from Roger Williams University in Providence, Rhode Island and a master’s degree from the University of New England in Portland, Maine. Alain worked as a research investigator and clinical trial coordinator for over 15 national and international pharmaceutical trials.
It was his lifelong passion for nature and the great outdoors which ultimately led Alain to enroll in the Landscape Architecture and Environmental and Urban Design program at Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. In April 2020, he earned a Master of Landscape Architecture and was valedictorian of his graduating class.
Alain’s work has been recognized by the Florida American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) with multiple Design Awards of Honor as well as the First Place Award in the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Campus RainWorks Challenge. He also has been inducted as a member of three honor societies, including Sigma Lambda Alpha, the only honor society in North America that exclusively recognizes scholarship in landscape architecture.
Alain seeks to connect people with the innate beauty in nature. He believes that building that connection through landscape design allows communities and their surrounding environment to thrive. He is driven by functionality and innovation to push the limits of landscape design.
When he’s not working, Alain has a variety of hobbies ranging from photography and graphic design to cooking and horticulture. He also loves to “live like a local” when travelling and fully immerse himself in new cultures to more deeply appreciate all their many facets.
Alain currently serves as an adjunct faculty instructor for the FIU School of Landscape Architecture.
Mira: Social Media Strategist
