Reflections of Natural Beauty

The campus, located on a plateau surrounded by picturesque natural rocks, rich earth tones and vegetation, has a view of Cowles Mountain, a familiar summit characterized by warm shades of soil and rock. With parking lots interspersed around the buildings and landscaping in need of a redo, the challenge was to improve the look of the campus while adding elements and activity spaces that reflect the beauty of the native topography.

Influence/Criteria

Adding an employee fitness center as well as outdoor eating and recreation areas were a priority, so the planners identified a building that formerly housed mechanical equipment as the ideal location. Built on a crest, the building’s surrounding land required a combination landscape and hardscape that would accomplish multiple objectives: 1) cost-effectively provide an attractive way to manage a naturally occurring slope; 2) complement the master plan; 3) ensure the outdoor space has the elements needed for recreational enjoyment; and, 4) serve as a partition to screen the parking areas and define the space.

Working in collaboration with DES Architects + Engineers of Redwood City, Calif., the landscape designer, Lastras de Gertler (LdG) Landscape Architects of San Diego, knew they would need a hardscape system that could be assembled in various configurations and serve multiple functions. The team also included Level 10 Construction and BrightView Landscape Development, both of San Diego.

The HOLE Solution

Rocio Gertler, principal of LdG, and the team, turned to Tampa, Fla.-based McNICHOLS‘ ECOROCK. The gabion-style wire containers created a partition and divider system that is custom-filled with angled rocks harvested from a local quarry. This Wire Mesh and frame grid system can be integrated into seating, partitions, and decorative features. Assembled in container-style arrangements along the slope outside the fitness center, the system became the basis of LdG’s plan for amphitheater-style seating that also became an outdoor extension of the fitness center. Hand-filled by BrightView with indigenous rocks, ECO-ROCK in the amphitheater is capped with Ipe wood and installed in varying heights and deeps along manicured lawn grass and platform steps.

ECO-ROCK is also highlighted in other areas of the campus in addition to the platform steps. Along walkways, ECO-ROCK can be seen filled with patio stones larger than those in the amphitheater seating. In the outdoor eating area, ECO-ROCK is applied to the front of a dining counter as a way to repeat the rock design feature throughout the amenity area.

Gertler said cost efficiency was a key factor in LdG’s choice of landscape and hardscape material. “We wanted a design that could bring down the expense of the grounds,” she says.

“To make it personal and add interest, we wanted to create a place of plantings, hardscape and furniture,” she says. “We wanted a scenario that was rustic and, with the mountain view, we wanted to bring natural materials into the plan and introduce it in an artistic way.”

“We like that ECO-ROCK is a system,” adds Gertler, noting that, “we knew we would need to use the material in different ways, so we wanted a system with different sizes and functions.”

According to Howard Jeng of DES Architects + Engineers, the newly designed amenities on the campus combined with the addition of glass elements to the buildings, turned a once monolithic-looking concrete setting into an aesthetically pleasing office park that is the home to technology companies and light industrial tenants. The redesigned entrance and patio areas helped better define the entry point, as well as the various parts of the campus, he said.

The project earned the 2017 Orchid Award for Landscape Architecture from the San Diego Architectural Foundation.

Mary Estes is a contributing writer for McNICHOLS CO., Tampa, Fla. For more information, visit www.mcnichols.com.