Eleven acres of beautiful, fragrant horticultural surprises and enchanting venues suggest an early evening overlooking Swan Lake. Lined with palms and seasonal profusions of poppies, pink primroses, yellow daffodils and tulips, lavender violas, and red bougainvillea, colorful yet tranquil paths lead to courtyards scented with gardenias, jasmine, and orange blossoms. Though the principal of Sasaki Associates, Inc.'s Long Beach office, Todd Bennitt, ASLA, has designed many hotel environments since designing the landscape renovation for Rosewood Hotel Group's newly-purchased one- and two-story Spanish-style Hotel Bel-Air in 1983, the refurbished gardens of the landmark hotel in Stone Canyon have become a landmark themselves.

In strategizing the expansion of the Hotel Bel-Air, Rosewood banked that the landscape could visually and physically unite old and new sections of the hotel and psychologically minimize the distance between the lobby and a new 33-room wing. By creating a leisurely pedestrian experience, a series of courtyards with fountains and plants that filter the sun transformed the walk into a pleasurable experience whose success hotel marketers measure in occupancy rates: "The Hotel Bel-Air, for example, is regularly rated as one of the 10 best hotels in the nation, and the hotel maintains an enviable 90 percent year-round occupancy rate. I'd like to think that [Sasaki's] landscape work has contributed to its success by enhancing the guests' experience," says Bennitt.