SOCO - South Coast Collection and OC Mix
As a result of the Great Recession, this 20-acre complex in Costa Mesa, California, featuring home furnishings, design studios, restaurants, and a shopping center, suffered severely. Vacancies were high, and while prominently visible from the 405 freeway, there was little happening at the center. The new owners of the center, Burnham Ward Properties, began an aggressive campaign to bring some prominent, contemporary retailers back into the fold.

Ridge Landscape Architects (RLA), as a part of the design team, was tasked with revitalizing the center to attract top tier tenants. RLA prepared the site demolition, hardscape, irrigation, waterscape, and landscape documents for the project. The landscape design created outdoor spaces for hanging out, dining, and shopping. The architecture was simplified and made more contemporary.

Signage
An extensive signage program was incorporated into the project, including giant free-standing letters on the freeway frontage buildings and a prominent digital sign featuring happenings and how to get there. Lifestyle graphics combined with green screens and a diagonal patterning of the landscape were set-back to set the stage, announcing to drivers along the 405 freeway that something different is happening. The signage at the corner of Hyland and Sunflower was also upgraded to free-standing, up-lighted letters incorporated into the landscape with a decomposed granite path and Olive trees.

 
Hardscapes and Plantings
Inside the site, corridors were a bland row of identical plant containers with sidewalks on either side and a planter with dwarf Magnolia trees in the center. RLA applied a system of bamboo, creeping vines, and Asian pottery groupings along the store frontages, breaking up the sterile appearance. Seating areas and dining patios by some of the tenant spaces were added. An outdoor room was designed with a peaked garden structure enclosure using salvaged architectural elements. The result was a varied, visually stimulating walk with places to meet or hang out.
Existing Washingtonia palms, which were out of scale for the site, were removed and a central area of concrete paving was replaced with decomposed granite. An existing water element basin was simplified and now features a rig of water jets in the center and low steel bowls with agave in rock cobble at the perimeter. Landscape was replaced to utilize drought tolerant shrubs and ornamental grasses with heritage olives to create a sense of place. Varied seating with built in benches, movable tables and chairs with umbrellas, and artist designed giant Adirondack chairs, were added around a weathered-steel fire bowl. Ornamental grasses and succulents were added to break up the plaza into sub-spaces for gathering and dining. Following the initial project installation, RLA continued to design the new restaurant patios, trellises, and vegetable garden surrounding the central plaza as well.

A Community Hub
A farmer's market and food trucks have since been introduced into the parking area to link the big box stores with the small shops at "the Mix."
What was once a hard to get to, struggling shopping center, has once again become the heart of the neighborhood with a renewed regional draw. The design makes the center an environment conducive to events such as cooking classes and demonstrations, book signings, food and wine tastings, lectures, and live music.

LBX - Long Beach Exchange
LBX (Long Beach Exchange) is a dynamic, experiential, retail and dining destination within the Douglas Park planned development in Long Beach, California, located at the southwest corner of Lakewood Boulevard and Carson Street near the Long Beach Airport, Long Beach City College, and in close proximity to the 405 freeway. Opening in the spring of 2018, LBX encompasses approximately 266,000 square feet of stores, shops and restaurants on more than 26 acres of communal open space for the public to enjoy. It features three distinct and complementary zones that work seamlessly together to create a singular experience for locals and visitors alike. These include McGowen's Approach, LBX's version of "Main Street," The Landing, a grand-scaled 1.25-acre central plaza, and The Hangar @ LBX, a 16,800-square foot 'hangar' showcasing an evolving, curated collection of local purveyors of art, food, design, fashion, and other unique goods and services.

Landscape Design
The landscape concept for Douglas Park Retail Center was designed to reflect the site history of a former Boeing aircraft production facility along with references to the Port of Long Beach, with roots in the community of Long Beach. The local McGowen's Approach is the projects' east-west main retail street. This area was designed to include tree-lined, diagonal parking with custom lighting and signage elements that pay homage to the aviation industry. Gateway signage elements were added to anchor the entries into the zone. Pedestrian circulation was balanced with efficient vehicular circulation and surface parking.

The Landing, with a precast concrete paver diagonal "runway," was incorporated to connect the Hangar to the balance of the center with striping, runway lights, and beacon lighting as the organizing element. A water element, consisting of a reflecting pond with a squadron of brass models of Boeing aircraft and historical plaques, were added. The east edge of the park was established with inclusion of fifteen-foot tall, down-lighted baffles illuminating green, vine-covered screens, alternating with equally sized vintage aviation posters. A strolling garden with a decomposed granite walkway, boulder groupings, bench seating, and succulent garden, were added to create a passive space for visitors to wander through.

Site elements now include a large deck with moveable furniture, umbrellas, and plant containers to create an outdoor dining area for patrons of the food court. An herb garden with raised wood planters was inserted to grow herbs for the restaurants to utilize. A metal shade structure with retractable awnings was specified to create an outdoor picnic area along the runway.
A bermed open turf area with provisions for an outdoor movie screen was established to create a performance or outdoor festival space. The sides of the Hangar were developed into small outdoor patio spaces for the tenants.125 heritage field grown Olive trees were planted to shade the parking areas with pedestrian spines linking the north and south portions of the center.

The Burnham-Ward Properties development was sold to a joint venture of DJM and PGIM Real Estate in January of 2022 and has proven to be a success as current tenants include Whole Foods, Old Navy, TJ Max, Mod Pizza, In n' Out, Grit Cycle, Portola Coffee, and BottleCraft among many others.