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This landscape design alternative, labeled #4, is my personal favorite of all the concepts that I created for NCAR.
 Landscape Design Alternative #4 for NCAR in Boulder, CO In this design alternative, the area in the upper right is sunken, with steps leading to flagstone paving at the bottom. You can see water cascading down the center of the steps to the bottom. This area becomes the focal point relative to the three other areas which are raised up high. These three areas form a kind of ampitheatre seating which looks down into the sunken area. Those three higher areas feature sitting steps. So this could be a venue for an award ceremony or marriage or other focal activity.
I often show this series of four alternative designs to potential clients, so they can see how wide the range of potential design can be. If we can find so many diverse concepts in a space with such tight design parameters, the possibilities really are endless.
After I presented these four concepts to NCAR, their committee requested something simpler, so I gave them a fifth landscape design alternative which, with modifications, is represented in the photograph of what was finally built.
Here is landscape design alternative #3 I presented to NCAR in Boulder, CO:
 Landscape Design Alternative #2 for NCAR in Boulder, CO The architectural style of this landscape design alternative is most akin to that of the building itself. The architect who was involved making minor modification to the building structure, Steve Loos, asked me to develop an alternative that reflected the architectural design gesture of NCAR as I.M. Pei had designed it in the early 60′s. This was really his launching pad to international prominence, therefore it was a very important building to him. He had taken his inspiration from the geometric forms of Anasazi cliff dwellings found in Mesa Verde. So with this alternative, I’m now trying to take these geometric patterns and apply them to the horizontal landscape, much as he had applied them to the vertical landscape.
This is landscape design alternative 2 I submitted to NCAR for their rooftop plaza.
 2nd Alternative Landscape Design for NCAR in Boulder, CO This alternative is the most radically different of them all. Its design is aligned with NCAR’s mission of doing research into atmospheric streaming patterns. This mission is reflected in a blue tile wave-like pattern representing water, which is similar in its dynamics to currents in the atmosphere. I gave a presentation at NCAR about water as the element of life, and the fluid dynamics of our design work with its close relationship to archetypal movement patterns in nature. Offices in NCAR’s towers look down on this rooftop plaza, so their employees could look down and see this fluid wavelike pattern–a representation of their mission. However, they chose a different, simpler design alternative.
As previously posted, I created the landscape design for the NCAR rooftop plaza in Boulder, Colorado. This project is really quite interesting, because I actually gave them a total of five radically different design alternatives to choose from. Because of the unusually tight design constraints, this really shows the tremendous diversity that can be possible to design even in such a constrained setting.
In this situation, I was working with a rooftop which already had giant, deep planting beds with mature trees geometrically spaced within them. I liked the grid-like regular pattern of the trees. That was the original concept which I felt was worth keeping intact. So we have this extraordinarily geometrical patterning of the trees, but then we have four radically different approaches to the hardscape, the planting beds, definition of places to sit, changes of elevation of the paving and grass areas. This series shows there are many, many ways to find strong design alternatives and solutions, yet given the same exceedingly restrictive parameters that limit what is possible.
As I post all four of the landscape design alternatives which NCAR turned down, along with the fifth (landscape design photo here) which was built, you will see a wide range of possible concepts.
 Landscape Design for NCAR in Boulder, CO: Alternative 1 Here is “Alternative 1″. The circles are the trees, and the squares inside the circles are the planter boxes. This design is closest to the original layout. I varied the sizes and directions of pavement to create interest, which would have replaced the original 8×8 grid of concrete squares the size of the tree planters.
Here is a sketch of a landscape design I did for a very unique property. This land was a little piece of untouched prairie until a couple of years ago, up against the flatirons with killer views, north of Chautauqua Park in Boulder. The project was a collaboration with the developer, the architect, and myself, from the earliest design stages. It is a spec home that will be on the market very soon.
 Landscape Design Plans for Boulder Flatirons Residence The landscaping involved bringing in hundreds of tons of stone. It’s on enough of a slope so that we could create very interesting combinations of moss rock walls with huge boulders. A soothingly geometric water feature, paving, benches, and a naturalistic rock garden combine sculpturally alongside expanses of wildflower and native meadow. It’s an example of how to set a very large single family residence into a prairie setting, with harmonious transitions from ultra-modern elements to a natural prairie landscape. If you’re curious to see the finished landscaping, check back in a few months. I expect to have some photos in the late spring, perhaps the end of May.
The house itself is extraordinarily modern looking. The architect, Sam Austin, is very creative and does a wide range of architecture. I consider him one of the best architects in the area, and it was a real pleasure to work with him on this project. He designed a rooftop terrace, which provides even more spectacular views.
We’re expecting it to be finished in a couple of months. It’s really one of the Denver area’s few remaining spectacular lots with no previous development. Since the recent reworking of the building codes in Boulder, I don’t know whether anyone could even build a house as large as this one anymore.
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