Mid-century building gets spruced up
"...She also knew that she wanted a fountain to go in front of the building. She turned to Bruce Hollister, a landscape designer from Venice, to design it. When it is installed in a couple of weeks, it will be 36-feet-long, with river stones and light inside. But, Hollister says, it will be “quiet and subtle,” without showy water jets.
Hollister, who works with Nick Tan of Urban Organics, also plans to incorporate an olive tree, which is already planted, into the fountain. He notes that standing on the slope above the tree, the viewer can see other trees in the distance.
“It ties together the whole neighborhood,” he said. “So much landscape architecture ignores the fact that you have neighbors. It’s not just your lot.”
In the back had been a traditional asphalt parking lot. Because of zoning, they were required to keep the parking.
“So we thought, what if we do drivable grass parking?” said Hollister. He and Tan used a crisscrossing grid of concrete with grass growing in between. They noted that this prevents polluted stormwater from washing into the drains and then the ocean.
Like Ritter, Hollister felt a special connection to the building as soon as he saw it.
“I just fell in love with it,” he said. “Four octagon-shaped building are not something you see everyday. I was just like, ‘I have to do this job."
Added on February 10, 2015
