XERISCAPE
By Tom Bostrom
January 1994

Driving north from downtown Los Angeles on the Golden State Freeway, one passes through a steep barren mountain landscape before descending to the spreading vista of the Santa Clarita valley, where oak trees dot golden hills of dried grass. These golden hills give rise to one of the meanings for California's nickname, "The Golden State." It is here, nestled into rolling terrain surrounded by grassy meadows, the new U.S. Borax headquarters building stands.

Completed in March 1993, the new headquarters symbolizes the company's commitment to environmental values. The building design incorporates the highest standards for energy efficiency, utilizing tinted glass which minimizes reflection and glare, inside and out, and natural soft colors which are in response to the climate. The building is configured into three elements: a four story administration section, a single story research laboratory, and a multi-level parking structure. The three components take advantage of prevailing breezes and define a forecourt space in front of the main entry. But it is in the Xeriscape* which frames the new building that the environmental values are expressed most strikingly.

Natural meadow grasses sweep along the entire length of the property, echoing the sere grassy hillsides of the valley. Conspicuous in its absence is any resemblance to what one might expect for a corporate headquarters: thirsty green lawns and lush plantings of flowering shrubs.

"The U.S. Borax project is cutting edge landscape design, combining art with environmental principles," says landscape architect Calvin Abe (pronounced ah-bay). "Borax gave us the opportunity to get out of the old paradigm of corporate headquarters landscaping. We worked from a new context: art plus energy efficiency with respect for the natural environment."

The expression of these concepts is readily apparent in the "Garden of Twenty", the courtyard landscape which visitors and employees pass on their way into the building. "When we researched the history of Borax, the theme of the twenty mule team emerged as the clearest corporate identity, so we worked with it," explains Abe. "The design for the forecourt evolved from an abstraction of a desert landscape which we fragmented into a grid of twenty panels to reflect the corporate theme." The garden captures the subtle beauty of a desert landscape and serves as an educational tool which is also a reminder of the beginnings of the company.

The twenty panels, metaphors for both the company and the desert, are aligned with the administrative wing of the building. Each panel is filled with rocks, imported from the desert where California borax mining started over 100 years ago. The panels are divided by walkways, recalling the tracks the mule teams blazed across the fiery desert. Each panel is planted with a grid of 20 desert grasses. Another grid of 20 desert-related trees is overlaid on the stone panels, and is aligned with the axis of the laboratory wing of the building, reflecting the science and research aspect of the company. The garden requires minimal watering, and is fitted with a drip irrigation system beneath the cobble.

"Mowed lawn requires an inordinate amount of water, and the maintenance of it entails considerable fossil fuel combustion. This means the traditional lawn actually has a negative environmental impact," explained Calvin Abe. "The climate of the Santa Clarita valley is semi-arid, so it would be environmentally inappropriate to plant large areas of lawn. With the U.S. Borax project, our goal was to maximize energy and water efficiency, so we limited conventional lawn to a small leisure area at the back of the building. Everywhere else we implemented a more ecologically balanced planting design related to the climate."

The results have challenged people's ideas about what grass should look like. The landscape has played to mixed reviews from Borax employees. "When are they going to mow the weeds?" is a question frequently asked of Betty Peters, facility manager. Betty has fielded numerous questions and jokes about the unusual landscape. It seems that the new look may take a while to catch on.

"We wanted not only to present an aesthetically pleasing experience, but also to influence people's ideas about the environment by encouraging conservation. The U.S. Borax headquarters landscape is designed to be aesthetically pleasing, and environmentally sensitive," said Calvin Abe. "Fortunately, Borax has been the kind of client who was receptive to these ideas, and willing to try them out."