In any creative undertaking, whatever its form of expression, the creative spark involves the discovery of concepts fueled by conscious and unconscious insights. So when Santa Monica landscape design firm Burton & Company won a project bid for the new Valley Performing Arts Center at Cal State Northridge, senior associate Stephen Billings took a walk around the site to explore what plants, trees and shrubbery were in place and what felt absent.
“The real design came into existence by being present on campus, in that space,” recalls Billings. “I studied the mountain views, how light played on the surfaces in place, and took those colors of ocher and golden-yellow for our material color palette.”
Not just another sea of nondescript plants, flowers and shrubs, the public landscape he designed to surround the center is innovative, dramatic and well conceived.
Drama Inside and Out
The university’s “wish list” was short: keep as many trees as possible and put in a lawn for events in front of the new performing arts center. Additionally, the school wanted the final product to “feel very California,” with all plants locally grown and drought-tolerant. Low-maintenance was a must.
As part of the plan, all existing trees, including the California live oaks, were to be factored into the ultimate design. When it opened this past February, 13 of the 18 existing trees had been incorporated, along with newly planted poplar, ash, sycamore, redwoods, oaks and palo verdes. The huge stand of trees now wraps around the performing arts center, providing shade where students can connect between classes on the hottest days of the often-triple-digit San Fernando Valley summer.
“We created a forest of 183 trees around two sides of the site that provides a little veil for the building, because the center is so big,” explains Billings. The veil is atmospheric as well. Trees help to decrease the heat island effect, improving air quality as they intercept dust particles and reduce carbon, lowering ambient air temperature and providing bird habitats.
The trees also provide an overhead canopy of dense, leafy trees, and Billings is gratified to see students enjoying the fruits of his labors while on break from their own. “It’s great to walk the curved linear path through the trees and see the kids using the seating areas,” he says. “Being under the tree canopy is like visiting an old California mission—comfortable and cool.”
On the south side of the center, the stone heats up in the summer months, “so I used native popular trees that shield the sun from hitting the building in summertime,” says Billings. “In the winter, when leaves drop, the sun hits the building and warms it.”
Also countering the sun’s intensity, light-colored paving was used in the walkways and courtyard between the ticket office and the center’s main building to reduce the amount of reflected heat.
Because the courtyard is the primary location in which theatre-goers gather before performances and during intermission, Billings wanted to maintain its aesthetic appeal, yet also provide a functional area where people could be comfortable. And since this is a center for performing arts, “we created a little bit of theater using the element of surprise,” says Billings, with the unusual kalanchoe shrub (felt plant) for drama, along with other standout plants and succulents.
“We wanted to work with materials we knew were hardy, and we also wanted unusual plants that would create a little drama, little plants with great talents,” says Billings. “We came up with plant combinations that were unusual, with different textures, different colors and seasonality.”
Plants that move in the wind and ornamental grasses that change colors with the seasons generate attention. Some of the grasses sport inflorescencs (a cluster of flowers), and in the fall the same grasses turn tawny in color, but in wintertime are dormant. “It’s a way of marking time,” explains Billings. Southern California does have its seasons.
All told, 80 percent of the plants on the site are native to southern California, and the other 20 percent are native to the Mediterranean climate. And the terrain itself has changed. When the center’s basement was being dug out, Billings used that dirt to create berms that took the topography from flat to gently sloping paths.
No Complaints
In an arid climate, water is always an issue when it comes to landscape design. “We chose drought-tolerant materials and a smart irrigation system with an irrigation controller that’s in communication with the weather satellite,” says Billings.
Moisture sensors report back to the irrigation controller, and maximum efficiency sub-surface drip irrigation delivers the water directly to the root system. Since the drought-tolerant landscape installation was completed, water consumption for irrigation at the university has plummeted from 9.5 million gallons a year to 882,418, a 90 percent decrease.
Maintenance has been greatly reduced, too. Before the new campus landscape, the entire grounds were turf lawn. Now the only remaining turf is the section in front of the Valley Performing Arts Center, used for campus functions, and just this one area, like so many other lawns in the university’s residential neighborhood, will need to be mowed regularly. Other than that, the university’s maintenance department needs to prune the trees and cut the ornamental grasses only once a year.
As Billings put it, “You have to use plant materials that are hardy, functional and don’t complain.”
Unusual Drought-tolerant Plants
Kalanchoe baherensis, also called velvet elephant ear or felt plant due to its velvety soft leaves. This slow growing woody, tree-like succulent has large dramatic, scalloped olive-green leaves. Native to Madagascar, it can reach heights up to 10 to 12 feet. It’s striking in a rock garden or raised bed, likes full to partial sun but is shade tolerant. Once this plant is mature, it produces small, greenish-yellow flowers in winter. The plant should be dry before watering, as too much water will kill it. Water once every 14–20 days during the growing season. In the winter months water sparingly. No hothouse breed, this species is resilient and will survive even if neglected.
Aeonium arboreum zwartkop, commonly called black rose. These succulents form clumps of 3 to 4-foot tall bare stems that hold large dark-purple rosette leaves. Contrasting yellow star-shaped flowers sprout in long cone-shaped clusters from the rosette center of mature plants in summer. Originally from the Canary Islands, this plant looks its best when temperatures are more moderate and water more plentiful. Aeoniums make excellent summer bedding plants, since their architectural shape contrasts well with most other bedding plants. They can also be used effectively in containers.
Echeveria is native to Mexico, Central and South America and needs bright light, heavy soil and excellent drainage. The common name for this plant is hen and chicks. These plants grow well with regular deep watering from below. When they are watered on the top, water may collect and spot the leaves. In winter these plants lose their lower leaves. Many of the plants have a waxy sheen to their leaves. Height is normally about 2 to 4 inches. Moderately fast growers, they like bright light to full sunlight. Echeverias range in size from small, hard-leafed varieties (sometimes no more than an inch or two across) to large, colorful, wavy-leafed varieties that can be two-feet wide.
Euphorbia characias, also know as Mediterranean spurge, is often used in borders, commanding attention in winter and spring but fading into the background during summer heat. Its lifespan is usually two to three years; however, these plants eagerly reseed. With showy cylindrical flower heads that are yellow-green and can reach 6 to 9 inches across and 9 inches high, it likes full sun but will tolerate some shade. Grow in dry to medium well-drained soil, but be sure to avoid or amend clay-like soil. It is native to the Balkans, southern Europe and Turkey, and considered to be evergreen in warm winter areas. Use gloves when working with this plant because of the toxic white milky sap from broken stems that may irritate sensitive skin.
