Architerra Design Group (ADG), a landscape architecture firm from Rancho Cucamonga, California, was contracted to engage, envision, design, and manage construction for a new 1.76-acre nature park on a previously vacant site, located in the Wilton Heights Historic District of Pomona, California. The completed design for this passive, nature-oriented park was developed with extensive community engagement facilitated by ADG. The community desired to create a space that encouraged health, wellness, and educational opportunities in an otherwise underserved neighborhood of the city. The park is divided into five main planting areas with traversing trials and contains interpretive features, such as educational panels, themed gardens, architectural accents, and hands on elements for kids and adults alike. Featured gardens include an oak woodland, riparian woodland, meadow grassland, pollinator's garden, and a Historic Citrus Grove. All the gardens highlight local plant communities from the surrounding Pomona and San Gabriel Valley and offer several opportunities for interpretation
and discovery.

 
There were several hardscaped areas of note on the project utilizing a variety of unique materials, finishes, and designs. In the park, there is 1/4-mile Garden Trail, and a 1/8-mile Meadow Trail that are paved with decomposed granite. The Meadow Trail features pre-cast concrete slabs set at grade engraved with inspirational quotes from thought leaders and celebrities.
Agricultural and local historic themes are featured throughout the site through architectural elements and complimentary design of walkways, furnishings, and structures. The main entrance pays homage to the importance of local history and agriculture and features carved granite columns to resemble the original columns that mark the street entries around Wilton Heights. Arched steps lead to the wildflower meadow and are framed by the same style columns and feature custom tiles crafted by local school children. Permeable pavers are used for the walkway and include a citrus grove and an accompanying interpretive panel. The panel honors the namesakes of the park, Phil and Nell Soto, and their contribution to the region as groundbreaking and influential Latino public servants.
Water conservation was key to the design and reflected the grant funding requirements of the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. Low impact design strategies were utilized sitewide and include two bioswale rain gardens constructed with boulders, native plants, and cobble. The swales feature cobble veneer check dams which add structure and visual appeal. There are river rock accents throughout the park, including columns on shade structures, support columns for the tube steel security fencing, and the weathering steel bridge that traverses one of the bioswales.
The various stages for the life cycle of the frog are featured with pre-cast concrete set at grade, encircling a cobbled bioswale. A whimsical salamander in relief was constructed with inlaid flagstone pavers. The adjacent educational panel highlights the featured garden plantings, and a stone veneered serpentine concrete seat wall frames the panel at the south bioswale.
The Pollinator "Butterfly" Garden features play structures that demonstrate the life cycle of a butterfly, including an oversized hands-on, pre-cast concrete butterfly, leaf, and caterpillar. An interpretive panel highlights the importance of pollinators (birds and butterflies) to the ecosystem and how featured plants in the adjacent garden attract them.
Other hardscape features include an "amphitheater" formal seating area composed of solid 8' granite blocks in a semi-circle set at grade around a custom, open shade structure. The structure is supported by the same carved granite columns as the entry to the park. Decorative concrete features a relief of an orange slice constructed with a colored, terrazzo finish. A concrete pedestal inlaid with student tiles is at the center of the structure and has features a comprehensive map of the park showing the locations of the site features.