Project Highlights: LEED Certified Gold Project, drought-tolerant plant selections, net-zero water use, water cistern capture and reuse
Located in San Diego, this commercial project differentiated itself because of a simple challenge – how can we capture enough rainwater to achieve using zero potable water for plant irrigation? Early in the design process, our team collaborated with architecture and civil engineering to locate two, 7,000-gallon water cisterns within the landscape. Working with LEED consultants, we then calculated the projected annual water storage capacity for cisterns collecting rainwater from the proposed center’s roof. Using these metrics, we curated a plant palette requiring less water annually than our capture capacity.
To do so, our team embraced drought-tolerant, desert-adapted, and native plants offering low maintenance benefits and seasonal interest. By prioritizing these plants, our team was able to eliminate the need for irrigating planting areas with supplemental potable water. Further, we designed to minimize hardscape and maximize softscape. This approach will help to cool the site during hot summer months while also reducing embodied carbon in our proposed design.
Projected to earn LEED Gold certification for its energy and resource efficiency, this corporate training center demonstrates the potential to design planting palettes that embrace our region’s low water realities. Imagine if every project in San Diego County followed this same approach. That is a beautiful and water wise future to cheers to.
The BioLogic innovation center creates a new hub for this healthcare company to showcase its latest technologies to new and existing clients. This project challenged our team to transform a small underutilized outdoor space as an extension of the new indoor innovation center. Our client envisioned an outdoor amenity space equipped to host important meetings, breakout sessions and cocktail receptions, all while celebrating the women’s health industry.
To maximize this space for BioLogic, we created a central patio with an outdoor workspace that could support moving meetings and ideas outside and into fresh air. A custom, built-in wood clad bench with smaller breakout tables created opportunities for hosting smaller meetings or for enjoying lunch breaks outside. Adjacent to the central patio, we created two smaller patio spaces – one for more private meetings and another adorned with lounge furniture for exploring creative ideas in a more relaxed environment.
Surrounding these spaces, we nestled the BioLogic Innovation Center’s patio amidst a lush planting palette of native grasses, perennials, and accent plants. These patio spaces are further buffered from nearby parking by a dense hedge of Podocarpus and Ficus Nitida shrubs. This verdant backdrop of dense planting provides space for employees to recharge in nature.
Implemented from design to completion in approximately one year, the BioLogic Innovation Center’s patio offers a space to focus on this company’s impressive mission.
Expanding on the bohemian Tulum-inspired vibes of a previous brewery location, this project looks to dial in the often-generalized aesthetic of beer gardens to reflect the modern styles of Southern California. New Heights MV makes the most of San Diego’s climate with a strong indoor-outdoor experience. The outdoor space provides a variety of flexible seating opportunities arranged around a main lawn. The landscape is plant-centric and eclectic, ditching the all native theme for climate-tolerant plants from Mexico, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere. This collective palette of motley plants makes for a looser and more inclusive look and feel, reflective of the many cultural influences shaping design and style in Southern California today.
When New Heights MV opens later in 2023, guests will be able to choose to sit around fire pits, in cozy Acapulco chairs, or around the table as they sip the brewery’s crisp + bright, hoppy + dank, or dark + roasty brews while chowing down on munchies, pizzas, burgers and sandwiches and other fare. The backdrop of dining will be the lush patio landscape chock full of coast live oaks, fence post cactus, and smooth aloes. Tailoring the palette to fit with Gravity Height’s branding, an additional layer of orange flowering native shrubs and perennials is also incorporated into the landscape including California poppy, orange agastache, and monkey flower.
Project Phases Completed by AS: Site Plan Submission, Design Development, Construction Documentation (Under the guidance of Senior LA + Principal)
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, Visual, LandFX, Adobe Creative Suite, SketchUp, Lumion
Located in the crossroads of its city, Garden Place prioritizes the creation of green space for passive recreation and incorporates a plant palette that packs in high functionality for rainwater treatment with low maintenance species. The site integrates an existing memorial statue, cherished by a local ethnic community as a reminder of the horrors of war and discrimination.
Challenges: Design challenges for this project included balancing the needs of the community with the preferences of the client and city. Originally, the existing statue was slated to be removed and relocated, making space for a central fountain, plaza, and comfort station. However, pushback from the local community led to a city-wide vote with the verdict ensuring that the existing statue was to remain in place. This late project development lead to a complete redesign of the initial proposal with additional services required to resubmit revised design for project approval. This challenge also required thoughtfully integrating and softening statue area as a buffered, contemplative space.
Slated for development in the near future, Garden Place is designed to celebrate flexible and diverse site usage - providing amenities for commuters passing through the site on their way to catch a train and residents strolling over to relax, reflect, and enjoy.
Note: Project name and detail withheld as project is still being approved with installation forthcoming.
Project Phases Completed by AS: Community Outreach, Concept, Design Development (Under the guidance of Senior LA + Principal)
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite, SketchUp, Lumion
The Green is a community park in Lower Manhattan, New York City. An ongoing project slated for development in 2022, this project is a collaboration between nonprofits, city agencies, and community groups transforming an existing green space into a compact, robust community park and new development.
Challenges: Though controversial in the sites redesign of an existing and beloved green space, this proposal attempts to solve conflicting design needs for the city and neighborhood - allowing for increased functionality and year-round enjoyment of a reduced park footprint while solving for a critical affordable housing shortage. By reducing the green footprint, the project is able to develop a high performance green-certified building hosting nonprofit office space, indoor community center, and affordable housing available for LBGTQ seniors and people experiencing chronic homelessness.
The following work represents design iteration developed between 2018-2019 and informed by both community design charrettes and evolving client needs. Presented designs reflects the multiple chapters that the projects has moved through both internally and externally as this project and its design solutions evolve to fit multifaceted community needs.
Note: Project name and details withheld as project remains in approval process.
Project Phases Completed: Site Plan Submission, Design Development, Construction Documentation (Under the guidance of Senior LA + Principal)
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, LandFX, Visual, Adobe Creative Suite, SketchUp, Lumion
Harbor Green is a multi-use development project proposing residential high-rise living amidst a multi-faceted streetscape. The design centers on celebrating the site’s desirable location by the water and its view of the nearby city skyline. High-end residential towers are proposed along an interior road as in-fill development replacing previously underutilized parking lots. Towers and their commercial streetscape footprint flank an existing and highly popular outdoor Biergarten which has become a year-round hangout for the neighborhood.
Design Challenges: With streetscape space limited, this project designs for multiple amenity terraces on the 9th, 10th, and 11th floors of the tower, creating spaces for residents to use for outdoor living. Amenity decks feature a dog park, tot lot and outdoor gym along with bars, barbecues, fire pits, lawn games, ample seating nooks, movie projection screens, garden walks and lush green roof planting.
Note: Project name and detail withheld as project is still being approved with installation forthcoming.
Honor Award Winner (NJASLA 2021): Environmental Enhancement Award Category
Honor Award Winner (NJASLA 2021): Equity & Justice Award Category
Project Phases Completed by AS: Community Outreach, Concept, Construction Management (Under the guidance of Principal)
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite
When COVID-19 arrived in New Jersey in March 2020, the Boys & Girls Club of Hudson County realized the need to quickly create an outdoor space to host their youth summer programming. After securing a short-term land use agreement with a real estate investment company, the nonprofit partnered with a Melillo + Bauer + Carman to provide pro-bono design services transforming their 5,100 sq. ft. vacant lot into a pop up garden in Jersey City’s Powerhouse Arts District.
Challenge: Through this partnership and with help from a community fundraising campaign, The Boys & Girls Club Garden emerged, showcasing how design and investment can rapidly be deployed to solve social challenges and improve lives.
In April 2020, our design team started conceptualizing the garden, focusing on integrating three major design requirements as outlined by the client. These included the creation of raised beds for youth to grow their own fruits and vegetables; planting beds to feature pollinator and native planting palettes; and flexible social-distance friendly seating options around a main open area supporting play and performance. With design intent identified, the landscape architects selected Lafayette Greens (ASLA Honor Award, 2012) in Detroit, MI and PHS Farm for the City in Philadelphia, PA as project precedence to reference in the Boys & Girls Club Garden’s unfolding built form.
Over Spring 2020, the Boys & Girls Club of Hudson County and volunteers installed their new garden following design with guidance from the landscape architecture team. The built design incorporates (26) 4’x8’ raised beds, generous perimeter pollinator garden beds, and multiple socially-distance-friendly outdoor classroom areas. The garden also features various art installations further transforming the site’s existing concrete backdrop into an uplifting space. A flower mural located in the middle of the garden was laid out and painted by the Boys & Girls Club Summer Camp. Further, raised garden beds were re-imagined as personal canvases for participating youth to paint their own expressions. These bed canvases emerged as moving pieces of art capturing the struggles of COVID-19 and racial injustice in America.
Built by and for the youth, the Boys & Girls Club Garden has succeeded in creating a critical healing space, growing nature, art and hope for a brighter year to come.
Honor Award Winner (NJASLA 2019): Environmental Enhancement Award Category
Promise Garden: Growing Food and Community in New Brunswick, NJ
Project Phases Completed by AS: Community Outreach, Concept, Construction, Master Plan Rendering (With assistance from the community, sponsors, volunteers, and guidance from Elijah’s Promise senior staff)
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite, SketchUp, Lumion
Promise Garden is a one-acre garden located in the heart of downtown New Brunswick three blocks away from Elijah’s Promise’s Community Soup Kitchen. Following the completion of Phase I site improvements in 2018, Promise Garden produced 1,000 pounds of produce for culinary meals, engaged 350+ volunteers through garden workdays, and hosted multiple community events.
Promise Garden’s proximity to a diverse urban population allows many residents and children to “get their hands dirty” and eat food that they have grown while living in a densely populated city. The garden also challenges negative perceptions of working, messy landscapes (Engler, 2004) while expanding the “landscape vernacular” of Greater New Brunswick. (Jackson, 1984). Promise Garden is poised to expand (Phase II) as it explores long-term strategies for successful agricultural production in a hotter climate while training the next generation of urban gardeners.
Challenge: In order to get this project installed, it needed to be funded. This required strategizing how to apply and receive multiple grants, how to leverage free and available reusable materials to build the majority of the site’s features, how to develop programming around team building opportunities to host corporate sponsor days, and how to create leadership opportunities and roles for AmeriCorps members, students, and other volunteers to manage portions of site installations and managements. Together, these challenges led to the creation of numerous community collaborations which created innovations and unintended positive ripple effects outside of Promise Garden!
A therapeutic herb garden for contemplation and cooking.
Expanding existing fruit and nut tree orchard to create shade canopy for climate change resilient salad green production.
Residents desired a green space to eat outside, play, and walk their dogs.
Award: Kresge FreshLo Project Grant Winner
Project Phases Completed by AS: Community Outreach, Concept, Construction (With assistance from the community, sponsors, volunteers, and guidance from Elijah’s Promise senior staff)
Computer Programs: Adobe Creative Suite, SketchUp
In May 2016, Elijah’s Promise was awarded the highly competitive Kresge Foundation’s FreshLo Grant to perform a planning and feasibility study for our Mercado Esperanza Project. Working with New Brunswick Tomorrow and coLAB Arts, our New Brunswick, NJ team set out to to develop an open air market to benefit the Latino residents of New Brunswick's Esperanza Neighborhood.
The Mercado Esperanza has developed into vibrant, community market celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit, cultural heritage and artistic soul of New Brunswick’s diverse population and the Esperanza Neighborhood.
Challenges: With the backing of many ethnic and Latino communities in New Brunswick, this projects development and installation had to be authentic in its reflection of the community and ability to create solutions benefitting actual New Brunswick residents. The project also had to be sensitive to many difficult realities including developing frameworks for residents to gain access to affordable commercial kitchen spaces, entrepreneurial trainings, and other services usually restricted from populations lacking documentation and financial support.
This project is geared towards promoting economic development, access to healthy food, community health, local culture and arts. It further works to link residents to the variety of beneficial services offered throughout New Brunswick that are less likely to be marketed to Latino residents.
As the lead Project Manager for this initiative, my involvement with the Mercado Esperanza has been to coordinate the design of proposed market space through a community led design process. To undertake this effort, our team has collaborated with multiple community partners and with local residents to lay the groundwork and vision for the Mercado.
These photos and renderings demonstrate the evolution of the Mercado Esperanza from a brick and mortar, multi-million dollar investment project to a phased and feasible outdoor market where resident can gather, shop, socialize and have access to services that will improve their quality of life – a true community hub to benefit all.
Project Phases Completed by AS: Concept, Design Development (Under the guidance of Principal)
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, LandFX, Adobe Creative Suite
As a private residence on Crystal Lake in Mountain Lakes, NJ, this landscape design package proposal transforms an existing 3/4 acre sloped site into a unified and lush property. Existing conditions on site included a large wooded area which offered excessive screening and shade on south side of property. Additional existing conditions included wide open lawn spaces and crumbling retaining walls in rear portion of sloped property, creating ideal conditions for erosion and ecological harm due to excessive runoff into the lake.
This proposal envisions connecting front and rear portions of property, creating a balanced approach to planting densities which promote harmony both aesthetically and ecologically. Front woodland portion of property is partially thinned out while a secondary driveway entry is filled in with lower woodland planting, allowing sunshine and sight lines from streetscape to home. Defined lush lawn areas are framed on either side of main entry using native planting to reinforce connection of residential entry with surrounding woodland. (See planting palette for more planting information.)
Challenges: In rear portion of home, fencing and planting perimeters are implemented to create a generous terraced lawn area as a secure play space for the client’s children. The sloped portion of the site is then regraded, amending existing retaining walls to create a pleasant series of transitional and reflective spaces moving down towards the lake. Alternate pathways are created through a cascading gravel and wood staircase on west side of property and through a graceful sloped lawn pathway on east side of property.
Views are framed from the main house to the lake through integration of drifting ornamental birches and columnar cherries at primary points of landscape transition.
Project Phases Completed by AS: Concept Design, Planting Palette Exhibits, Purchasing, Installation
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch Up, V-Ray
LOW-MAINTENANCE. LUSH. WHIMSICAL.
This residential project’s scope included transforming an existing empty site into a lush and low-maintenance landscape with pops of seasonal color, drought-tolerant grasses, and therapeutic perennials herbs.
A plant palette including sporobolus, schizacharyium, and eragrostis infills this expansive mulched front yard. Lavender adds pollinator benefit and rhododendron frame and define the home’s facade. Stepping stones meander through the central massing of ornamental grasses, creating an element of everyday play and whimsy.
Challenge: Convincing the client to plant a dense landscape of low maintenance, drought tolerant grasses instead of just a small portion of the property.
Project Phases Completed by AS: Concept Design, Planting Palette Exhibits, Purchasing, Installation
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite
ACTIVATE. EXPAND. SOFTEN.
This client wished to maximize their compact 13’x13’ existing backyard space at their South Philadephia residence. The resulting design proposes reorganizing existing site elements to frame a small shaded seating area with verdant corners to anchor the space. Design works within a constrained $2,000 budget and is an example of efficient purchasing with wholesale discounts. Installation forthcoming in July 2021.
Challenge: Keeping the budget extremely low while stretching and maximizing the design impact to fit within the client’s financial requirements.
Award: Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, 2016 Conference Selected Presentation (Salt Lake City, UT)
Project Phases Completed by AS: Research, Concept Design, Purchasing, Installation
Computer Programs: AutoCAD, Adobe Creative Suite, Installation and R&D
Pop Up Compost Project (Rutgers 2016) is my graduate project thesis identifying the opportunity and need for designing urban community waste spaces that provide positive experiences for residents cycling their own organic waste. It reviews developments in NYC’s Department of Sanitation’s Compost Project, an initiative intended to popularize composting “by giving New Yorkers the knowledge, skills, and opportunities they need to produce and use compost in the city.”(DSNY) Three case studies been chosen to include a variety of composting scales and methods along with a range of compost site designs and site experiences - specific criteria informing the design of new urban composting spaces.
After reviewing case studies and gleaning best urban composting practices, this paper designs, proposes, and implements a composting network for the city of New Brunswick, NJ. The proposed compost network combines mobile food scrap collection locations with stationary compost cycling centers. Integral to this proposal is the design, and construction of Compost Drums - 55-gallon drums retrofitted with “waste windows” - allowing for the visual accumulation of community compostable material. These flexible landscape elements arrange temporary plant-based, food-scrap collection spaces in the urban landscape while making the process and collection of compost available for residents to experience.
Challenges: While noteworthy landscape designs have emerged exploring the potentials of landfills and large waste spaces (Fresh Kills, Danehy Park, Sky Mound, etc.), these projects are generally located away from the patterns of everyday life. And while these sites have produced ecological constructs for how we perceive complex, layered spaces (Thayer) existing waste sites provide few examples of spaces designed for the community scale. The design and arrangement of the Compost Drums within the larger urban composting network is intended to shift the perception of community waste collection - reframing the mundane task of waste collection as an opportunity for expanding the scope and pedagogy of landscape architecture.
Research and design elements from Pop Up Compost Project have been adopted to fit state policy requirements for waste hauling and waste cycling - influencing the implementation of the Compost Project at Promise Garden which works to divert 20,000 pounds of food waste from meals prepared at Promise Catering while producing 10,000 pounds of finished compost for New Brunswick gardeners annually.
My design journal is an important tool for sketching and developing conceptual ideas. These sketches emerged during a studio project working for the National Park Service in St. Croix, USVI. Visiting Christiansted’s historic Crucian neighborhoods, these 3-minute sketches demonstrate my ability to quickly capture the character and color palette of a project site in the former Danish West Indies. Returning to the studio, these interpretive sketches aided in recounting Christiansted’s iconic streets, architecture, neighborhood colors, and island ethos. This process speaks to my approach to design - one which begins with a rigorous series of sketching as the fodder for computer-aided design.
Computer Programs: Adobe Creative Suite
At Elijah's Promise, I directed the graphic design initiatives for the agency developing logos, event flyers, brochures, project booklets and biannual reports. During my Masters in Landscape Architecture, I also applied my skills in Adobe Creative Suite to develop graphic design needs to accompany projects and community initiatives. While graphic design is not my primary focus, it is another area of expertise in my skillset to assist in project development or business branding and identity creation.
