Sustainable Landscape Design Round Table Discussion

On September 11th, we met at Genentech in South San Francisco for a encore presentation by David Nelson, ASLA, Principal-in-Charge and Senior Designer for Landscape Archtectural and Urban Design Projects at MPA Design. David's presentation revealed a world where hardcore engineering, green fundamentals (reduce, reuse, recycle), budgets and politics merge with the timeless values of nature and beauty.

The following sunset tour of the Genentech campus was punctuated by sightings of a Gen-cat (invaluable in the management of pestiferous but valued starlings and blackbirds), a magnificent memorial Norfolk pine, a solstice secret, strawberry trees, climbing ficus, 30-thousand pound ficus trees (on a laboratory roof), lichen covered Sonoma boulders, rubber duckies, 5% grades and 8% grades, wild grasses and naked ladies. Or maybe that's pink ladies -- the debate continues.

Special thanks to David for his help with many practical answers to questions regarding planning considerations and the facility management of landscapes.