Monthly Archives: January 2018
Descanso Updates Native Spaces
Expect Evolution in the Oak Woodland and California Native Gardens
January 12, 2017. By Staff: This month, Descanso Gardens began to update the Center Circle display garden which has housed the New Look for LA since April of 2015.
“So many visitors came up to me in the garden and said that they looked to the space for inspiration as they changed their home garden to save water,” notes Rachel Young.
Descanso Gardens usually updates the Center Circle every other year. The Gardens kept the New Look for LA on display an extra year as part of their’ commitment to helping Angelenos envision the lush, leafy, low-water, landscapes authentic to LA.
“We’ve made an impact on home gardens throughout Los Angeles. I’m hopeful we’ve also generated more support for the nurseries that grow California friendly plants as the featured plants inspired Angelenos,” added Young.
As display gardens like the Center Circle are updated, Descanso Gardens makes every effort to reclaim and reuse materials. Hardscape materials are often reused within the same display. For example, FormLA Landscaping created the gabions at the base of archways and benches from what had been a dry river in the previous display.
Foliage currently established in the New Look for LA will be relocated to new, permanent homes. Native plants, including fragrant Hummingbird and Cleveland Sages, wildflowers and shrubs will be relocated to Descanso’s Oak Woodland and evolving 8-acre California Native Garden, alongside other new plantings.
“The New Look for LA helped generate increased support for the rehabilitation of the native gardens,” Young explains.
Young and New Look for LA designers Cassy Aoyagi and Isara Ongwiseth have developed a multi-year trajectory for evolving the California Native Garden. Legendary nurseryman and native plant advocate Theodore Payne designed the original garden, which opened in 1959.
“We thoroughly enjoyed defining the New Look for LA with Rachel and the Descanso team,” noted Aoyagi, a past-president of the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants. “Now building upon the work of Theodore Payne is both an honor and a thrilling professional challenge.”
MGBCE: Next in Green Building
Date: Thursday, April 19, 2018
Time: Expo 8 am – 4:30 pm, Panel 2:00 pm
Location: Conference Room C, SoCalGas Energy Resource Center (Map)
Registration: USGBC-LA
California likes to lead, particularly when it comes to protecting the environment. Now that CALGreen elevates our state building codes beyond LEED standards, how do we up our game? Both SITES and LEED for Neighborhood Development offer exciting opportunities to look beyond the building to increase our environmental impacts and overall resilience.
Both standards outline the treasures hidden in our green spaces, particularly our common grounds. As opposed to focusing on water use alone, they give us a structure for understanding the broad and deep impacts of our landscaping choices on our health as well as our fiscal, social and environmental resilience. Join us to explore how exploring this new frontier can benefit your business and LA.
FormLA President Cassy Aoyagi will moderate a panel of experts at the intersection of urban landscapes and resilience, including:
- James Carlson, @citysierramadre, management analyst, City of Sierra Madre
- Kitty Connolly, @theodorepayne, executive director, Theodore Payne Foundation
- Alex Hall, @UCLAIoES, professor, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, UCLA
- Richard Halsey, @chaparralian, executive director, Chaparral Institute
The panel will tease out why seeing “beyond the building” should be the next step in the green building movement and explore:
- How do LA’s landscapes exacerbate or mitigate fire/flood/drought dangers?
- Why is this important now? (More than ever!)
- What are the 3 top ways we can landscape to improve LA’s fire/flood/drought resilience?
- Where can the green building community make the biggest impact?
- How does looking beyond the building benefit individual developers, builders, and communities?
Recognizing the audience will be full of experts, the panel will save ample time for audience interaction and Q&A.
