Over the last 20 years in Los Angeles, the expansion of Metro - the city's public transportation system - has set up new urban opportunities for dense, mixed-use, transit-oriented communities that challenge the area's car-dominant culture. One of these is the West Edge development, which sits next to the evolving Expo light rail line and brings 516 new residential units, 150,000 square feet of creative office and amenity spaces, subterranean parking, and a half-acre urban plaza to West L.A. Located on the five-acre site of an old Cadillac dealership, West Edge is a design collaboration between architects Gensler and AC Martin, with landscape architecture provided by RIOS - a global, multi-disciplinary collective with headquarters in Los Angeles.

The Ground Floor
At the heart of the development sits a central plaza surrounded by 80,000 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store anchor. The plaza serves as a place of connection and respite for visitors, residents, and tenants. Spaces are designed to a scale that support everyday use but provide flexibility and infrastructure for large events. The design team envisioned the metaphor of a river flowing around large stones to illustrate the connectivity the plaza could impart. This "river" is a series of paving bands that meander around large planters - the "stones" - that create small, calm spaces for gathering. Two of these spaces contain an Ipe deck sized for groups of two to five and outfitted for grab-and-go dining.

The cast-in-place concrete planter walls have a dynamic form, with their top edges widened for seating. The planter height varies due to the application of "micro-topo" that creates enough depth for trees while minimizing weight and blockages to sightlines. It also produces a natural-feeling landscape that obscures the reality of the parking structure below. The planters culminate at a central, raised lawn with trees, reminiscent of a single-family neighborhood. This midway planter serves as a visual and programmatic focus. Across the central lawn, another Ipe deck provides an accessible link to residential and office entrances as well as a larger gathering space.

 

Residential Terraces
The residential building features a large courtyard on the second level that connects directly to the central plaza and includes resident amenities such as a swimming pool, yoga deck, fitness lawn, grilling station, reading nooks, and lounge areas. Through its design and programming, this courtyard organizes these areas as nodes along a planted corridor that carries the project's ecological and spatial ambition, accommodating over 80 of the 156 required trees. This became an opportunity to create a labyrinth of orthogonal paths that expands and contracts in programmed areas. Movement is layered and intuitive, providing open clearings within a lush, immersive canopy that offers a sense of privacy for residents in the courtyard and in their units above.

Built entirely over structure, the landscape is elevated and articulated through a system of tiered planters. To break down the idea that the entire project is on structure, the design team developed a language of planting wherein lower planters became space for smaller shrubs and cascading plants that people can interact with more readily. On the seventh floor of the residential building, one terrace faces the central plaza while another faces the Santa Monica Mountains and is an extension of a rentable indoor kitchen and entertaining room. Along the perimeter of this terrace, a series of modular planters define the edges, frame views, and buffer wind and solar exposure through climate-responsive planting. The other terrace is more sheltered. Shaped for both communal use and smaller, more intimate moments, its focus turns inward, capturing views of the plaza and adjacent tower while reinforcing a layered relationship between landscape, architecture, and daily life.

Office Terraces
The Gensler-designed office tower includes several terraces featuring custom modular planters that divide space based on office plate layout while leaving enough flexibility for changes as the sizes and needs of office tenants change. The planting palette of each terrace is based on its orientation to the sun and the planting visible in the plaza below. The terraces wind up the building and offer views of the plaza, paseo, and mountains beyond.

Plantings
The site's planting palette is diverse and evolving - attuned to the levels of solar exposure and program of each space. At the plaza's south-facing entry, the planting is bright and expressive, with vibrant succulents that amplify the light and openness of the space. Moving inward, the plaza begins to compress, the microclimate shifts, and the planting transitions to a more temperate, California Mediterranean palette. Larger canopy trees, placed more sparingly, mediate the scale of the surrounding architecture while maintaining framed views upward. Understory species introduce texture, fragrance, and seasonal variation. As the plaza narrows more, the landscape shifts again: this time into a tropical shade garden. Philodendrons, monsteras, and bromeliads create a dense, layered environment that reinforces a more introspective atmosphere.

The residential courtyard became the home to over 80 of the site's required 156 trees. To facilitate this, the narrow-form Paper Bark Tea Tree (Melaleuca quinquenervia) was specified. Beneath these, a combination of shade-tolerant, tropical, and native species creates a varied experience while traveling through the corridors. At the pool, the tree canopy begins to recede to produce a warm, bright place with understory plantings that reinforce the tropical color of the pool deck, which connects to the sunny grilling space. This area stands out from the rest of the courtyard with its colorful inflorescence and more open canopy - signaling a more social space.

A Tribute to a Bygone Era
In collaboration with local fabricators, the team developed a series of custom metal seats that were embedded into the stepped topography of a monumental stairway with tiered bleacher seating. These pieces draw from the site's Cadillac legacy, translating the sculpted geometries of classic fenders and hoods into a contemporary seating language. Cushions reference the plush tactility of mid-century interiors while the color palette is derived from the automobiles' historic exterior and upholstery finishes.

Reflections
With a strong narrative, an effective strategy, and a full commitment from the creative team and client, a framework was established that made it easy to adapt the project's design whenever issues surfaced. From initial renderings to the final execution, a very clear visual DNA exists. There was a lot of experimentation, exploration of limitations, and, with some matters, a large monetary investment that ultimately achieved success because they were distinctive and memorable elements the client wanted. As further proof of the project's triumph, it has received numerous honors, including the NAIOP SoCal's 2024 Mixed Use/Retail Project of the Year.

As seen in LASN magazine, July 2026.