Healthy Hardscapes

Stephen Kelly, editor

This colorful seating area is cast-in-place concrete with penetrating color stain to depict the inside of an abalone shell. Adjacent are “waves” of safety surfacing with a boat play structure.

In the Oct. ASLA Show issue, LASN featured the design work of “Firms of Northern California.” We only had room for two pages for each firm, but spotted some interesting hardscapes from Antonia Bava Landscape Architects of San Francisco.

In this feature, we showcase two of their projects: the Mental Health Skilled Nursing Center at San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center, and just down the peninsula, the new campus for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

The new 15-acre campus of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation across from Stanford University has 232,700 sq. ft. of new buildings, including research facilities, out-patient clinics and administration. Site development included two major pedestrian landscaped plazas, a pedestrian/auto entry plaza over two levels of below-grade parking, and on-grade site development for parking and landscaping. About 2.8 acres of the landscaping for the site was developed over subsurface parking.

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Project 1: Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) New Campus, El Camino Real, Palo Alto

Client: Palo Alto Medical Foundation, a Sutter Healthcare Affiliate, Palo Alto, Calif.

Architects:
Design Architect: Ellerbe Becket.
Architect of Record: Robinson Mills + Williams

Landscape Architect: Antonia Bava Landscape Architects, San Francisco, Calif.

The view from the atrium to the East Plaza features terrazzo paving in three colors.

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) for Health Care, Research and Education is a not-for-profit, multispecialty group health care organization. The foundation has three health care divisions, including one in Palo Alto, the south Bay Area peninsula city most recognized as the site of Stanford University.

The Urban Lane Plaza offers a geometry of integrally-colored concrete raised planter seat walls and paving. This garden is continuously blooming with Prunus cerasifera ‘Krauter Vesuvius,’ hydrangeas, camellias, roses and geraniums.

The new 15-acre campus for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation contains a complex of 232,700 sq. ft. of new buildings, including research facilities, out-patient clinics and administration. The site is located on a highly visible Palo Alto site on El Camino Real, just across from Stanford University.

The wooden pergola in the East Plaza is contrasted by cast-in-place integrally colored concrete columns, matched by paving (right) of the same material. The paving and benches to the left are three types of terrazzo.

Site development included two major pedestrian landscaped plazas, a pedestrian/auto entry plaza over two levels of below-grade parking, and on-grade site development for parking and landscaping. The project site planning preserved several specimen live oaks. Approximately 2.8 acres of the landscaping for the site is developed over subsurface parking.

The Entry Drive has alternating color bands of integrally-colored concrete paving, raised planters and precast bollards.

Pediatrics Court

The pediatrics staff of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation requested a themed children’s play area adjacent to the pediatrics clinic and waiting area. ABLA designed a series of themed children’s play areas that provide active and passive play for children, plus an area for parents. The pediatrics staff and patients selected the scheme “By the Sea” as the concept.

The Urban Lane Plaza raised planters offer seating and trellises for climbing roses and camellias.

Components of the design include a beach shore, grass huts, a gangplank, and an abalone shell design bench and paving, resilient safety surfacing depicting ocean waves, a climbing boat structure and a sand play area. An emphasis was placed on the research and selection of plant material, which focuses not only on the theme of the sea-side design, but also on the selection of nontoxic plant materials.

The Entry Plaza is an open space with below grade parking that incorporates emergency parking and ramp access to the garage. The alternating color bands of colored concrete paving are softened by Quercus lobata, Lagerstroemia ‘Tuscarora,’ and Myrtus communis ‘Compacta.’

The design involved extensive collaboration with the PAMF Department of Pediatrics staff. The scope of work included schematic design through construction observation.

The fountain in the Serenity Garden of the Radiation Therapy Court has colored cast-in-place concrete fountain walls and agapanthus plantings.

The pediatrics staff of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation requested a themed children’s play area adjacent to the pediatrics clinic and waiting area. The staff and patients selected a “By the Sea” theme for the landscape architects, Antonia Bava Landscape Architects to create. The entire area is built on top of an underground parking garage.

Serenity Garden Radiation Therapy Court

The Serenity Garden for the radiation oncology department is an adjunct garden space for the clinic therapy program and waiting area. Light quality is an important consideration, since the radiation therapy department is below grade and the staff can work the entire day like troglodytes—deep within their caves with nary any natural light. The design is a tranquil space for patients, staff and visitors to enjoy fresh air and the light of day, plus it doubles as an occasional setting for donor events. The pleasing garden setting projects the caring and nurturing of the clinic for patients undergoing radiation therapy. The landscape architects worked closely with the radiation therapy staff to design a comforting and restorative garden by carefully and quietly engaging the senses with soft colors, a reflecting pool, plant materials and a comfortable scale of design components that is an elegant composition of restrained sensory elements in a peaceful and soothing setting.

The “gangplank” to the “water” is festooned with Palo Alto Medical Foundation life preservers and nautical flags.

The Abalone Shell seaside plantings includes Queen palm (Syagrus sp.), Limonium perezii and Festuca mairei.

The Landscape Architect’s Role

ABLA was responsible for site development and landscape design for all outdoor areas. This included hardscape, softscape layout, roadway and parking layout, grading and detailing for all site and landscape areas, including the design of a themed pediatrics outdoor court and a radiation therapy outdoor court. The design involved a five-year design review prior to final approval. The project involved extensive collaboration with the city of Palo Alto planning department, the architectural review board, the city planning commission, the city council and the Palo Alto Arts Commission. The scope of work included schematic design through construction observation.

The view to the beachside grass huts through the seaside is a bouquet of Erigeron k., Queen palm (Syagrus sp.), Limonium perezii and Festuca mairei.

“Waves” lap up on the beach (paving) near the grass huts, surrounded by sand “dune” planter walls constructed of concrete masonry units with a stucco finish. The planters represent undulating sand dunes.

Project 2: Mental Health Skilled Nursing Center, San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center

Client: City and county of San Francisco, Department of Public Health, San Francisco General Hospital

Architect: Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz

Landscape Architect: Antonia Bava Landscape Architects, San Francisco, Calif.

The paving for the central courtyard at the San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center is colored concrete with a checkerboard pattern, albeit a round checkerboard. Betula nigra, Agapanthus ‘Alba’ and Liriope ‘Silvery Sunproof’ highlight the landscaping.

The San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) Medical Center in the Portrero Hill district of the city on a five-acre hillside site. SFGH integrates medical, psychiatric and addiction treatments and is the city’s largest provider of acute psychiatric care and San Francisco’s only provider of psychiatric emergency care.

Light bollards illuminate the way along the central courtyard and circular seating areas. Betula nigra and liriope ‘Silvery Sunproof’ abound.

Within the SFGH campus is the three story, 185-bed, short-term care facility called the Mental Health Skilled Nursing Center. The Mental Health Skilled Nursing Center provides a rehabilitation focus that promotes improved independence and enables residents to achieve their highest level of functioning and improve the quality of their lives.

The Mental Health Skilled Nursing Center and the San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center is situated on a five-acre hillside. The 130,000 sq. ft. building wraps around two courts, a central landscaped courtyard and a horticultural therapy courtyard. Antonia Bava Landscape Architects (ABLA) of San Francisco provided site planning/development and landscape design, including landscaping of hillsides, street, campus edges and development of surface parking.

Designed to provide home-like structured settings for patients, the 130,000 sq. ft. building wraps around two courts, a central landscaped courtyard and a horticultural therapy courtyard. The outdoor courtyards provide areas for structured patient activities, informal group or individual recreation. A separate outdoor recreation and gathering area was developed for teenage patients. Small courts provide open space access at all building levels. Site work included landscaping of hillsides, street and campus edges, as well as development of surface parking for staff and visitors.

The view of the San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center from Portrero Ave. in the Portrero Hill section of the city. Portrero is “pasture” in Spanish and derives from a 1835 land grant here for cattle grazing. Prominent from the street are the Canary Island date palms (Phoenix canariensis) and Escallonia shrubbery.

The Landscape Architect’s RoleHead

Antonia Bava Landscape Architects (ABLA) of San Francisco provided site planning, site development and landscape design. This included grading, parking and road layout, landscape construction and softscape design. The design involved extensive collaboration with neighborhood groups, the S.F. City Planning Department, the S.F. Planning Commission, S.F. Bureau of Architecture, S.F. Civic Design review and the Office of State Architect Health Planning. The scope of work included schematic design through construction observation.

Above & Below: This is the Horticultural Therapy Courtyard with and without flora in the planters. The paving, benches and raised planters are colored concrete. Perimeter planting includes bougainvillea, Meyer lemon, Polygala dalmaisiana and lavender. The plants and shrubbery within the planters (below) are the doing of the patients in residence.