This design-build project was contracted under McCarthy Building Companies but worked in conjunction with the TBWA/CHIAT DAY representatives. This World Marketing Agency caters to Fortune 100 companies and world brands, with clients being whisked in and out of their Western headquarters. The surrounding landscape is the first impression of the building and company and thus was highly scrutinized during the design process. The landscape concept was to integrate the new parking structure with the existing building structures and plantings located nearby. The use of architectural plants was chosen to complement the modern themes of the building and structure. This simplified plant palette was chosen for its different colors and complementary textures. The result was a striking, low-maintenance landscape that was able to maintain its impact at all times throughout the year.
Marina Design Group is working on the conceptual phase of the rehabilitation of the Historic Plaza in downtown Twentynine Palms. Workshops have been completed with the City Planning Department and the local Business Owners Association to discuss the rehabilitation process. This city-funded project is high profile in nature due to the anticipated economic revitalization and its historic location. Due to the harsh conditions of a desert environment, trees are exceptionally valuable for adding shade, character, habitat, and beauty to a desert community. The historic palms on the site are currently being inventoried and assessed for preservation and possible relocation in order to enhance the historic character of the plaza. The addition of new tree species will provide human scale and aesthetic value, in addition to habitat and shade, to increase the sustainability of the site.
Located in the rolling hills of Temecula, Marina Design Group has been working with the owners to enhance the overall feel and approach to the wedding ceremony area. Located among the vines of the vinyard, the wedding area will be enhanced with a true Tuscan feel by the addition of old world fountains and urns, a hillside olive orchard, and by framing the views to the restaurant and rolling hills of the surrounding countryside with oaks and other native plants. Red gravel on the surrounding service roads will give contrast to the grey greens of the native and Mediterranean plants. The wedding procession walk will be enhanced by wrought iron arbors supporting flowering vines and surrounded by drifts of lavender and rosemary. This dramatic approach to the ceremony area will enhance the experience of a vinyard wedding.
Working with the owners, Marina Design Group developed a destination that speaks to the traditions of the Paso Robles wine region as well as the Pear Valley label. The visitor experience begins at the estate entrance, guarded by towering valley oaks and a seasonal creek. The sublime, winding drive through acres of vineyard ends at a Tuscany-inspired rustic stone winery, tasting room, demonstration garden, and two picnic areas. Strolling the grounds around the winery, visitors will find a landscape steeped in Old World elegance. Bronze statues, a formal rose garden, a rock grotto enclosed by a grand staircase, and a fountain courtyard complete the scene. In the olive orchard, large wooden doors lead to a hilltop event space with sunset and vineyard views, setting the table for a great Pear Valley wine-tasting experience.
As part of our work at Westfield Mainplace Mall, Marina is using the Hunter remote control battery valves and programmer for the irrigation system. When our maintenance work began, several challenges were addressed, including declining plant material and non-distinct entrances. Through altered pruning practices and increased attention to the trash detail frequency, Marina has greatly improved the appearance of the property. Marina has replanted areas with new and more drought-tolerant plant materials, and we are currently working with the manager on new designs for the main entrances. Through proper maintenance and replanting, Marina will continue to enhance the landscape at Westfield Mainplace Mall.
The Third Street Promenade project took a section of Santa Monica that had been impacted by crime and long overlooked and transformed it into a downtown gathering place. It is now very much alive with tourists, local artists, street performers, and cultural arts. This project was completed with Marina as the subcontractor to M.H. Golden. The job consisted of four city blocks and included the installation of 60" box jacaranda trees and 35 ft. California fan palms, along with topiary art imported from Paris, France. Third Street Promenade is now a vibrant and exciting place to see movies, shop, dine, and people-watch.
Marina landscape worked with Oltmans Construction for Amazon's new concrete tilt-up warehouse, site, shell, and T.I. buildout. This new developement has 36,241 sq. ft. of office space and two pick-mod mezzanine floors. Marina performed landcape work and irrigation repair for this project.
Prior to its development in the 1880s as a luxury seaside resort, the Coronado peninsula was a brush-covered sandspit accessible only by rowboat. To create the lush landscape desired for the site, local horticulturist Kate Sessions selected hardy, drought-tolerant plants from comparable coastal climates like Mexico and the Canary Islands. When the Hotel del Coronado opened in 1888, its grounds boasted ornamental and specimen species that had not yet been planted in California. Envisioned as a tropical garden at the heart of the hotel by developers Elisha Spurr Babcock and Hampton Story, and created by Sessions, a rectangular courtyard was filled with rich arrangements of palms, cycads, ferns, birds of paradise, and other exotic species. Designed by architects James and Merritt Reid, verandas and red cupolas jut out of the hotel’s white-clapboard façade to overlook the central courtyard gardens below. Between the hotel and the ocean, terraces give way to an elliptical, open lawn and colorful, low-lying plantings. Sandy berms planted with aloe and agave protect the beachfront lawn from erosion. Plantings along the resort’s meandering pathways echo Sessions’ original plant palette, and a dragon tree planted by Sessions along the Vista Walk is considered one of the hotel’s most iconic landscape features. Although the 28-acre property has been updated and renovated on several occasions, many of Sessions’ key specimen plants and primary design elements remain. Hotel del Coronado was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1977.