La Quinta Cultural Campus

LOCATION:

La Quinta, CA

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The La Quinta Cultural Campus project began with a design brief to envision an ethnobotanical garden that would adorn a promenade in front of a new plaza, oasis, and event space at the La Quinta Museum. Typically, ethnobotanical gardens display and explain the traditional uses and meanings of native plants for indigenous people. Through conversations with Cahuilla elder Kim Marcus, the team gained a greater appreciation for the nomadic nature of the Cahuilla people, who journeyed annually between the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains and the Coachella Valley. This migration followed the rhythm of life, with summers spent in cool mountains and winters in the warm low desert, traversing diverse habitats such as Oak Savanna, Juniper/Pinyon Woodland, and Chaparral.

To thrive during these journeys, the Cahuilla people developed an extensive understanding of plants—knowing which could be eaten, used for medicine, or crafted into textiles, vessels, and tools. However, a small garden of low-desert plants acclimated to La Quinta’s climate would represent only a fraction of the Cahuilla botanical knowledge. Furthermore, sustaining plants like Ponderosa pines in the Coachella Valley’s heat would be impractical. A new communication strategy was needed, beyond plant tags and didactic panels, to honor the nomadic people’s vast relationship with diverse plants across multiple altitude and climate zones.

This realization inspired the concept of using the decorative diamondback rattlesnake in the campus paving to narrate the story of many plants, their uses, and the places they inhabit. The snake’s forty back diamonds became vignettes that iconographically depict plants and their uses.

Under Kim’s guidance, the team organized the plants by altitude in a detailed spreadsheet. Key legendary figures and essential everyday objects were interspersed among the plant vignettes.

Starting at the snake’s head, representing 10,000 feet above sea level, visitors encounter the Sugar Pine, a source of nuts and shelter materials. As they progress along the snake’s spine, they move down in altitude, encountering low desert species like Ocotillo and Creosote at the snake’s tail.

Collaborating with Olivia Wax, forty vignettes were composed. Several were hand-traced, and the team partnered with a regional leader in concrete construction to establish graphic standards for stroke, texture, and color. Key objects from each vignette were chosen for representation with brass inlays, such as the Sugar Pine’s nuts or the Ocotillo’s branches.

Thanks to effective communication by Cheryl Chiu and Matt Austin of HGA, the design discussion with the City of La Quinta evolved from a conventional ethnobotanical garden to a landscape storytelling method that vividly illustrates the connections between a people and their surrounding plants. When this innovative approach was presented to City staff, their response was enthusiastic: “This isn’t what we asked for, but I didn’t even know I wanted this until you showed me. Let’s build this thing!”

The project has been immensely rewarding, largely due to the people involved. The collaboration with HGA’s staff has been a constant source of joy, and the City of La Quinta’s ambition and imagination have been instrumental. Gratitude also goes to colleagues at McCullough, who contributed inspiration, expertise, and effort.

If all proceeds as planned, the project should be completed and on the ground before the end of 2025.