Let It Grow Wild: David McCullough Talks Native Plants With ICSC
Native plantings by McCullough Landscape Architecture are a prominent feature of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s Trails at Westfield Galleria at Roseville in California. RDC is the architecture firm for the exterior refresh project, set to open next year. Rendering courtesy of RDC.
Shopping centers are not usually where you expect to find wildflowers, dormant grasses, and monarch butterflies. That is starting to change, and we are glad to be part of it.
David McCullough, ASLA, PLA, Principal Landscape Architect, was recently featured in ICSC's Commerce + Communities Today in "Retail Landlords Rewild Their Landscapes With Native Plants" by Joel Groover. The article looks at how retail owners across the country are trading clipped hedges and imported ornamentals for plants that actually belong to the place.
David shared our approach to The Trails at Westfield Galleria at Roseville, where we are working with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and RDC to turn an outdated outdoor district into a park-like destination. Think oaks, sages, sycamores, native grasses, and locally sourced boulders, all meant to feel like the Northern California landscape just beyond the parking lot. The Campus on Villa La Jolla, at the front door of UC San Diego, gets a mention too.
He also makes the case for a little wildness. Leave the grasses standing when they go dormant. Let the seasons show. Give people a reason to feel like they have stepped into a different world when they walk outside. As David says of planting milkweed at home and watching the monarchs arrive the same day, "It's crazy how well it actually works."
For us, this is what designing with grit, soul, and style looks like: landscapes rooted in their context that use less water, support local wildlife, and give people a real connection to nature.
Thank you to Joel Groover and ICSC for including us in the conversation. Read the full article here.