La Jolla projects receive landscape architecture design awards

the Charles David Keeling Apartments at UC San Diego, designed by Spurlock Poirier Landscape Architects, feature an expansive roof with more than 4,000 plants that capture stormwater and provide thermal insulation. Courtesy

By Pat Sherman

Two projects in north La Jolla were honored last month by the San Diego chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), as part of the groups 2012 design awards.

ASLA recognized landscape architect Laura Burnett and the firm of Wallace, Roberts & Todd in the category of Planning and Analysis for the long-proposed Torrey Pines City Park General Development Plan.

The conceptual master plan for the parks design calls for replacing the existing, rain-rutted dirt parking area north of Torrey Pines Gliderport with clearly marked spaces. A layer of gravel, soil and clay will first be added to smooth the lot, which will be covered by permeable, asphalt-like pavement that allows stormwater to run through it. The vast amount of stormwater running toward the bluff from the UC San Diego campus will be filtered by the underlying layer of soil and gravel, and then channeled to native coastal vegetation that will be planted on the bluff and throughout the park.

Most important, Burnett said, the vegetation will help hold the soil in place, preventing further erosion. According to geotechnical consultants, the bluff could be losing as much as a foot per year from wind and rain, in addition to erosion caused by vehicle traffic, she said.

Nothing is better than native plant materials to keep that soil from washing and blowing away, Burnett said. The roots of the living plant material holds the soil in place.

The plan will retain the same amount of parking, though spaces will be delineated and organized in a way that allows for replacement of native vegetation, while maximizing parking and existing trails.

You gain a huge amount of area for habitat restoration just by putting things in an orderly manner, Burnett said. Its a really simple, sort of obvious design.

The citys Park and Recreation Board approved the plans last summer. An environmental report on the project was finalized last fall and received no appeals by a Dec. 27 deadline.

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La Jolla projects receive landscape architecture design awards