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.
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