CJM::LA

New Product Offered | Landscape Maintenance Reference Guide

At CJM::LA, we value the long term success of our clients’ properties and the outdoor spaces we design. With proper care and knowledge of best practices, gardeners and maintenance teams can help protect the investments our clients make in their outdoor environments. This long-term approach will not only help maintain the market value, but also the aesthetic and cultural value of our clients’ designed landscapes.

In order to ensure our clients’ maintenance teams have the guidance necessary to properly cultivate these outdoor spaces, we are now offering Landscape Maintenance Reference Guides as a product available to both commercial and residential clients. Serving as an educational tool to direct and facilitate the ongoing maintenance of our designed landscapes, these guides are tailored to each specific project or property and include a description of the landscape design objectives and maintenance goals; identification of relevant project requirements; and guidelines for plant and hardscape material replacements, weed and pest management, pruning, soils testing and fertilization, irrigation scheduling and system repair, water features, etc.

We are constantly exploring ways to better service our clients’ needs and are excited to offer this new tool to help maintain the integrity of our work and protect the value of our clients’ properties!

https://cjm-la.com/unity-of-santa-barbara/

Landscape Maintenance Reference Guide, Unity of Santa Barbara

Landscape Maintenance Reference Guide, Unity of Santa Barbara

Happy New Year 2021!

Quail Ridge Residence | Solvang, CA | Completed 2019

As we kick off the new year, the CJM::LA team is looking forward to longer days, new opportunities for innovation, and developing stronger relationships within our professional community. We remain deeply committed to our work as landscape architects and creatives; and are optimistic for a prosperous new year!

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

CJM::LA + AIASB Design Charrette 2020

At CJM::LA we seek out opportunities to create positive change in our community. The 2020 Design Charrette organized by the Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Institute of Architects aimed to Reinvigorate, Reinvent, Reimagine, and Repurpose our downtown with housing, energy, and life. Both Courtney and Mariella from our office joined the charrette to work with local architects, planners, designers, students, citizens and professionals to develop a new vision for the design of our downtown core to lead us into the next 100 years.

Courtney collaborated with team B whose focus was on the downtown open spaces including the state street promenade, parks and plazas. Here are highlights of team B’s presentation of a new shared pedestrian promenade integrating stadium seating, stormwater, outdoor dining and public art.

Courtney’s words chosen to inspire a lively promenade and community

Courtney’s plan and elevation of what a complete street in Santa Barbara could look like

Mariella collaborated with team 6A whose area of focus were the blocks between Figueroa, Carrillo, Anacapa and Chapala streets; encompassing the transit center, local eateries, banks and other essential infrastructure to our downtown core. Here are some of their design ideas that revitalize the transit center; integrating bus, bicycle and ride share, adding housing, retail spaces and open space to form a highly functioning and invigorating entrance to downtown Santa Barbara.

in person collaborative sketching with Dee Carawan and Tai Yeh

a quick sketch of Mariella’s used in the virtual design collaboration process

Dee Carawan’s final drawing of the transit center block

Thank you to all of our team members and to everyone who helped participate and organize this historical collaborative effort. You can watch the full recording of the design team presentations here. The AIASB

New Project Galleries

We’re excited to share more of our private residential work! Check out our Featured Projects page for new properties in Montecito and Solvang –

CAMINO VIEJO RESIDENCE

QUAIL RIDGE RESIDENCE

And our On the Boards page for a sneak peek at our design process for a Santa Barbara property.

YANKEE FARM RESIDENCE

Watch the AIASB Design Charrette 2020 Presentation

The Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Institute of Architects put together the 2020 Design Charrette to Reinvigorate, Reinvent, Reimagine, and Repurpose our Downtown with housing, energy, and life. On Wednesday, each of the sixteen design teams presented their key recommendations and design concepts to the public via a zoom webinar. You can watch the recording of the design team presentations here.

AIASB Design Charrette 2020 Design Team Presentations

For the past two months, over 150 volunteer architects, landscape architects, planners, civil engineers, designers, property owners and associated stakeholders have been hard at work developing a new vision for Santa Barbara’s downtown core. The Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Institute of Architects put together the 2020 Design Charrette to Reinvigorate, Reinvent, Reimagine, and Repurpose our Downtown with housing, energy, and life.

At 6 PM on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 each of the sixteen design teams will present their key recommendations and design concepts to the public via a zoom webinar. All are welcome! Please join Courtney, Mariella and the Santa Barbara community for this exciting event!

Click here to join the webinar!
Password: 937473

Central Coast Green Building Council 2020 Green New Construction Award

We are thrilled to announce the Direct Relief Headquarters has been awarded a U.S. Green Building Council 2020 Green Award by the Central Coast Green Building Council. Thank you to DMHA , our incredible client and the entire project team.

The Central Coast Green Building Council Green Awards recognizes outstanding sustainable building achievements and community members within the tri-county region.

The Green Awards highlight innovative design, construction, products, businesses, schools, governments and educational programs.

Check out this video of our project by DMHA highlighting the project team’s collaborative successes in designing a sustainable, efficient, beautiful and thoughtful site for the Direct Relief headquarters, offices and distribution center.

Under Construction | Downtown Infill Housing

We are excited to see two of our downtown infill residential projects under construction across the street from one another!
The first is our East De La Guerra Mixed Use project with KIBO Group and Cearnal Collective (check out these renderings). This project will bring 26 new rental units to the downtown core while restoring the historic home of the Ygnacio family; descendants of the notable Santa Barbarian and Chumash womxn Maria Ygnacia.
The second is our 800 Santa Barbara Street Mixed Use project with HBA Architects and JDC Construction and Development Group This three story development will bring 23 new housing units to the downtown core while preserving the original East-West brick paseo.

214-226 East De La Guerra

mixed use housing going up on De La Guerra

Cameron Hunt from CJM::LA verifies plans with American Landscape contractors

Left: Scaffolding at the new elevator tower | Right: Historic home of Maria Ygnacia to be restored

stone install.

landscape fabric installed at built-in planters | plants coming soon!

800 Santa Barbara Street

JDC Group begins construction at 800 Santa Barbara Street

existing olive trees to be relocated on site

view of 800 Santa Barbara from De La Guerra Street

SB Beautiful Golden Leaf Awards

We are thrilled to have our Dune parklet awarded a Santa Barbara Beautiful ‘Golden Leaf Award’ through our participation with Allen Construction‘s ‘Locals Helping Locals’ program. Thank you Allen Construction, Dune Coffee, Santa Barbara Beautiful and the Santa Barbara community for showing creative resiliency throughout this pandemic.

KEEPING SANTA BARBARA BEAUTIFUL DURING COVID-19
SB BEAUTIFUL “GOLDEN LEAF AWARDS”
CELEBRATING 55 YEARS OF BEAUTIFICATION

WHO: Santa Barbara Beautiful continues a 55 Year tradition of beautification with “Golden Leaf Awards”.
WHAT: SBB honors local businesses & organizations who showed leadership during this challenging time of Covid-19 Pandemic to enhance public space & support the arts.
HARD NUMBERS: (60) Hand-Calligraphed Awards Certificates for “Outstanding Community Support”
QUOTE: “We’re honored to celebrate our 55^th Anniversary with Golden Leaf Awards – dedicated to the strength of our community & the individuals who have given joy to our city during difficult times. Congratulations to each and every one!” ~ Penny Haberman, President SB Beautiful.

WINNING PROJECTS & PARTICIPANTS:

“Light It Blue”: City of Santa Barbara – Nina Johnson, Project Coordinator
1. Project Description: Local landmarks lit up in blue during the month of May to show gratitude to healthcare & essential workers.
2. Host Facility Sponsors: Arlington Theater; Lobero Theater; SB Museum of Natural History Sea Center; Cottage Hospital Santa Barbara; Mission Santa Barbara.
3. Coordinators/ Artists/ Sponsors: Andrew Gartner, Gartner Design Co. (Coordinator); Lani Ballonoff, SPARK Creative Events (Sponsor); Kym Cochran & Jonathan Smith, The Environment Makers (Participating Artists); Casey Caldwell, SB Arts Collaborative/CAW) (Sponsor); Jake Hanson, Bella Vista Designs (Sponsor); Ethan Turpin Art & Design (Participating Artist); Nina Dunbar (Coordinator).
“Locals Helping Locals”: Allen Construction – Lindsay Helmick, CFO Project Coordinator
1. Project Description: Building Pro Bono Outdoor Parklets; Seating; ADA Ramps, etc.
2. Community Partners: Hayward Lumber; Mission Audio & Visual; CJM::LA; Evergreen SB
3. Local Businesses: Brass Bear Brewing & Bistro; Dune Coffee; Holdren’s Steaks & Seafood; Kunin Wines; Little Kitchen; Mollie’s Restaurant; Renaud’s Patisserie & Bistro Montecito; Restaurant Roy; Valley Project; Villa Wine Bar.
“2020 Design Charette – Downtown State Street”: AIA Santa Barbara Chapter, Project Coordinator
1. Project Description: Reinvigorate, Reinvent, Reimagine, and Repurpose our Downtown with housing, energy, and life.
2. Charrette Committee Co-Chairs: Cass Ensberg FAIA & LEED AP; Detlev Peikert AIA, LEED AP BD+C; Ellen Bildsten AIA LEED AP; Matt Beausoleil AIA & 2020 president AIA SB.
3. Steering Committee: Alex Pujo AIA; Amy Fitzgerald-Tripp AIA; Paul Rupp AIA; Dennis Thompson FAIA; John Campanella; Karen Feeney, Hon. AIASB; Nina Johnson; Tony Tomasello; Jasper Jacobs P.E.
“2020 Awards for Responsive Works to Covid-19~Artists’ Stipends”: County of SB Office of Arts & Culture – Sarah York Rubin, Executive Director
1. Project Description: In recognition of artists’ essential contributions, up to 20 stipends of $500 each to local artists who created work in response to this unprecedented time of COVID-19.
2. Dennis Smitherman, County Arts Commission; Karen Kerns, SB Bowl Foundation. Project Participants: “#WeMakeEvents” “#RedAlertRESTART” .
Project Description: Local participation in a nationwide event of Red illumination of performing arts & culture venues on September 1, 2020 in support of live entertainment industry during Covid-19 pandemic.
Host Facilities Event Sponsors: SB Bowl: Rick Boller, Executive Director; Eric Shiflett, Program Director. Arlington Theater: Tammy Steuart (Metro Theaters)
Project Coordinator: Christopher Darling
Lighting: SPARK Creative Events

About Santa Barbara Beautiful

Since 1965, Santa Barbara Beautiful has planted over 12,000 trees, provided over $500,,000 in grants to support local art and design projects, funded scholarships to students majoring in environmental horticulture & architecture, and celebrated numerous individuals, residences, and businesses that have demonstrated exceptional efforts to make Santa Barbara beautiful.
The purpose of Santa Barbara Beautiful is to stimulate community interest and action toward the enhancement of Santa Barbara’s beauty as a complement to current and future government and private activity.
Santa Barbara Beautiful is an organization of volunteers dedicated to beautifying our area in a variety of ways not only by working independently but also by cooperating with city departments, neighborhood association and other agencies. Formed in 1965 by concerned civic leaders, Santa Barbara Beautiful is a non-profit, tax-exempt corporation. Contributions are tax-deductible

THE CLASSROOM DRAWINGS OF ORRA WHITE HITCHCOCK

We are so inspired by the drawings of Orra White Hitchcock – her use of simple line and color to depict soil profiles and other geological forms is a beautiful way to represent scientific ideas.

Orra White Hitchcock (1796 – 1863) was one of America’s earliest women scientific illustrators and artists. Between 1828 and the 1840s she made hundreds of large and striking classroom charts used as lecture aids by her geologist husband Edward Hitchcock.

This show, organized by the museum’s chief curator, Stacy C. Hollander, proves Hitchcock to be an artificer as much as an observer, imagining dramatic new ways to express the world’s beauty and, as she saw it, its sacred order. It also demands we drop some of our contemporary assumptions about academic disciplines, to understand an age when “science” was not so rigidly delimited, and stretched beyond the natural world to encompass theology and art.

Book:
The Classroom Drawings of Orra White Hitchcock
Palatino Press
March 28, 2014

Read Full Article:
Mushrooms, Magma and Love in a Time of Science
July 26, 2018
The New York Times

Images courtesy of Amherst College and Palatino Press

The Therapeutic Power of Gardening | Nature, Joy and Human Becoming

Read Full Article:
The Therapeutic Power of Gardening
August 17, 2020
The New Yorker

Wiltshire Garden, Tom Stuart-Smith

“A garden, Stuart-Smith suggests, can be a Winnicottian “in-between” space that allows the inner and the outer worlds to coexist simultaneously—“a meeting place for our innermost, dream-infused selves and the real physical world.” The meditative and repetitive aspects of gardening can function as a form of play for grownups who have otherwise stopped playing…”

Listen to podcast:
Nature, Joy and Human Becoming
August 27, 2020
On Being

Wiltshire Garden, Tom Stuart-Smith

“500 generations of what we call civilization and the 50,000 generations when we were part of nature, and your argument is that that is “where we evolved; where we became what we are, where we learned to feel and react,” “where the human imagination formed,” “where we found our metaphors and similes.”

UNITY | PROGRESS

Unity of Santa Barbara

Located across from Alice Keck Park Memorial Garden for over 60 years, Unity of Santa Barbara is an integral part of the Santa Barbara community. We recently had the pleasure of working with Unity on the renovation of their downtown campus. CJM::LA worked closely with both the Unity leadership team and congregation to develop a new design for their “front yard” space. What was once a traditional lawn with limited event capacity is now a beautiful courtyard suitable not only for outdoor services, but also weddings and other community events. Thank you to Allscape Design + Installation for an incredible job with the landscape installation, Stone Concepts for hardscape installation and VE Builders for carpentry work.