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.
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
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 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.
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.
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 55th 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.
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
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.
Unity courtyard before
Unity courtyard after | new permeable pavers, olive trees and custom wood benches
CJM::LA verifies hardscape, gravel and wood samples on site
Stone Concepts lays Hydro-Flo permeable pavers by Pacific Interlock Pavers
Allscape installs olive trees in the courtyard
hardscape and olive trees installed in the courtyard
VE Builders installs custom mangaris benches in the courtyard
completed courtyard
Construction of this downtown Santa Barbara home, winner of a 2019 Santa Barbara Beautiful award, was completed last year. This spring, pool contractor California Pools began installation of the integrated pool & spa. See more about the home and construction process in the owner’s blog.
finish grading before pool construction
pool framing and plumbing
the outdoor fireplace, a remnant of a prior home on the property, is resurrected in a new pool-side terrace
California Pools place rebar for the pool deck
Read Full Article:
First Look at the Blockbuster Development Proposed for the Funk Zone
April 27, 2020
SITELINE
We are excited to share some initial drawings for the SOMOfunk project via this recently published article. The SOMOfunk project will bring a new energy to the Funk Zone on Santa Barbara’s waterfront. Following is an excerpt from our landscape narrative:
Click here to read the full article.
Part 2: More myth-busting as we continue to address common misconceptions about landscape architecture.
Larger, denser cities are cleaner and more energy efficient than smaller, suburban towns. Suburban and rural towns may have immediate access to open space and wildlands outside city limits because of their more dispersed organization, but large cities can emulate natural ecologies.
Street trees, courtyards, green roofs and living walls, along with botanic gardens and parks provide a network of outdoor spaces that enhance the biological diversity of our cities and help provide essential infrastructure. This framework of planted spaces is able to capture and treat urban run-off, lower temperatures, improve air quality and provide resilience against climate change. Gardens and community farms also provide food and improve human health.
At CJM::LA, we help make our cities healthier and greener by advocating for more planting and functional outdoor space, especially in our densest multi-family housing projects; designing public parks, paseos, and green roofs; and improving city streetscapes.
transplanted Mexican fan palms line the stairs at Bella Riviera workforce homes in Santa Barbara, CA
plant pockets and climbing vines beautify the drive aisles at the East Beach Collection in Santa Barbara, CA | architect: WHA
live roof at the Hilton Garden Inn in Goleta, CA
textural plantings line the sidewalk at the Arlington Village apartments in downtown Santa Barbara, CA
entry plantings at homes designed for Habitat for Humanity of Southern Santa Barbara County in downtown Santa Barbara, CA
citrus trees within over-structure planters create a beautiful courtyard at Bella Riviera workforce homes
mediterranean plantings within raised planters help create opportunities for outdoor seating
neighborly gifts grown in downtown Santa Barbara, CA
During a prolonged drought, there is less available water in the natural ecosystem, which negatively impacts human food and water security. Less water available in aquifers and other natural water bodies means less water for the agricultural industry and for our cities.
Landscape architects provide drought resilience by designing systems to comprehensively and efficiently manage water resources. By implementing bioretention basins, rainwater cisterns, efficient irrigation, greywater recycling and use of climate-adapted and native plants, we optimize our water resources and reallocate the potable water supply for drinking use.
It might seem counter-intuitive, but plants improve our ability to resist the impacts of drought by improving soil health, allowing soils to better capture and store water. Plants also sequester carbon, lower air temperatures, and if used in applications like green roofs, reduce building energy use and reduce the urban heat island effect. We shouldn’t eliminate plants because they use water. Instead, we should be smarter about how we supply plants with water and which plants we elect to use.
Want more info? See these additional links about drought resilience and using green infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of other hazards, like wildfires and climate change.
bioretention plants treat stormwater runoff at the Direct Relief headquarters in Santa Barbara, CA.
April is World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM), a worldwide celebration of the impact this profession has on our daily lives.
As a part of our ongoing stewardship of the profession, this month we’re showcasing landscape architecture to the world and inviting the public to learn about what we do! People hold profound connections to the spaces where they live, work and play. This year we are celebrating the relationship between us and our environment. We look forward to demonstrating the impact that thoughtful design solutions have on our collective quality of life. Each week we’ll be posting something new, stay tuned!
We encourage you to join us in celebrating the landscape architectural profession by posting pictures from your neighborhood that highlight landscape architectural design with the hashtags #WLAM2020 and #LifeGrowsHere.
Be sure to tag @NationalASLA
Find out more about Landscape Architecture educational opportunities here.
Are you a K-12 educator interested in sharing landscape architecture with your students?
Learn more about Landscape Architecture education for teachers here
Are you hosting a virtual story time for your child? Check this out:
Green Trees and Sam by Shannon Gapp, ASLA/Bolton & Menk.
Renovations are underway at what will soon be known as the Hyatt Mar Monte. As this project nears the end of the construction phase, the CJM::LA continues to oversee the revitalization of this historic hotel with Young Construction and Steve Hanson Landscaping. This project combines layered textural plantings with historic Spanish Colonial detailing, ensuring a natural cohesion with the Santa Barbara waterfront.
demolition of the existing parking lot and impermeable brick paving
converting the existing parking lot into a pedestrian promenade and lobby placita
decorative columns taking shape!
framing the fountain
setting the mediterranean fan palm in place at the pool deck
converting the existing pool deck into a lush paradise
careful restoration of the original hotel entry
putting the finishing touches on our lobby placita fountain. tile provided by NS Ceramic.
We were out in full force last Saturday, giving tours of our Direct Relief project as part of the Santa Barbara AIA’s ArchitecTours. After an in-depth presentation by Michael Holliday, architect for the project, Courtney and Nicole led community members on a tour of the exterior of the property. Our design for the new headquarters includes innovation and reflection gardens, courtyards for events and employees, and stormwater infiltration features such as bioretention basins, bioswales and permeable pavers. The overall design language for the property features a “reed” pattern which reflects upon the history of this region as part of the Goleta Slough. Details such as the trellises, gates, and formliner panels which imprint the concrete tilt-up walls reflect this language. The planting design includes a subdued color palette and focus on form, texture and pattern in the plant material.
We received so many questions about the species of plants used throughout the property, so offered to share our plant palette which you can view below. Thank you Direct Relief for allowing us to open your doors to the community, and to everyone who came out for the tour. We love to share the story behind our work!
We are excited to announce the return of our Design Intern, Mariella Dentzel, at our Santa Barbara design studio!
Mariella comes to us with experience in product, furniture and installation design and fabrication. While at CJM::LA, she has begun to apply the creative problem solving skills she developed as part of her degree in product design to the field of landscape architecture. Mariella values the sense of place that successful designed spaces bring to our collective experience of the environment around us. In her free time, Mariella enjoys exploring new environments on her bike and climbing mountains!
