Ever since I was little, I would visit my parents' native countries where they both grew up on farms. In my grandparent’s home in southern Germany, I would run across the pea gravel of the vast courtyard, scrutinize bugs on leaves and eat sweet raspberries straight off the shrubs. In my mother’s childhood home in Mexico, I would eat as many medijool dates and citrus fruits as I could from the orchard and munch on mulberries till my fingers all turned indigo purple. I always felt sad every time we returned home to Southern California, full of concrete, hot asphalt, fast cars, no cool bugs or fresh berries, or big canopy trees. All those luxuries were gone. I didn't realize it then, but looking back now, I see how our built environment has a profound psychological effect on our wellbeing.

The curiosity of the child in us has never left, it is just no longer stimulated when there is minimal nature in our built environment to intrigue the brain. Adults still have a great appreciation for the natural environment: people drive over an hour away from the urban sprawl just to see the ‘super blooms’ of our native vegetation. Why is this? Because we have successfully eradicated our native vegetation through development and replaced open space with concrete and non-native ornamentals. Even though the design industry is working hard to stress the importance of sustainable design, in urban development we continue to see a high use of hardscape and opportunities are missed for more environmentally conscious materials. In 2023, while stress from work and daily life is at an all-time high, softscapes are providing psychological value over other types of amenities more than ever. Incidentally, designing intentionally with sustainability as the guiding principle produces more naturalized spaces currently lacking in urban infill environments. Every new development, every new outdoor space, is a significant opportunity to repair the urban fabric with more permeable, vegetated landscapes. In today’s day and age where the primary topic of discussion is sustainability and resilient design, it’s time to put some actual materiality to these concepts and discuss practical solutions that can easily be implemented into any development project.

Practical Design Solutions and the Beauty of Re-Use and Re-Purpose

Sustainability does not have to mean a massive LEED certified project needs to be developed in order to be beneficial to our environment. Every project can be impactful in even the smallest ways.

Let’s start with repurposing. The construction industry has a growing waste problem. In 2018, 143.8 million tons of construction and demolition waste was sent to the landfills according to an article from Visual Capitalist.

Repurposed retaining slabs made into a retaining wall outside the McCullough office at the Design Center.

Additionally, the cost of dumping demolished building materials is about six times more expensive than dumping green waste, let alone the cost of labor. Instead of sending material to the landfill, think about how materials can be repurposed on site. Broken up chunks of concrete slab can be stacked to create retaining walls or berms for planting areas. Use concrete pieces in lieu of flagstone pavers for a unique looking walking surface. When in need, we suggest reaching out to Habitat for Humanity, who has a great program called ReStore that provides deconstruction assistance and salvages reusable building materials. Learn more about the program here.

These days, nostalgia sells. Save old monument signs or existing objects and repurpose them or use them as art pieces in your project; it can also act as an homage to the place that it used to be. In one of McCullough’s projects, several objects were salvaged from an old mechanic shop to be repurposed. An old-school white sink is being repurposed as a dog water bowl and quick coupler in the dog run area. Large panels of corrugated metal are being re-used as wall cladding. The original signage of the mechanic shop is being re-purposed as the building’s new monument signage. Manufacturing new materials requires energy and valuable resources. Repurposing saves the embodied energy and cost of buying new items while preventing more waste from going to the landfill. Repurposed items also add character and uniqueness to your project that you can’t buy, once it’s in the landfill, it can never be recreated.

Original monument signage, made of corrugated metal panels, and garage pully system repurposed from the mechanic shop to be used in McCullough’s Hawley Lofts project.

Existing large compressor tanks repurposed as benches and planters at Hawley Lofts.

Benefits to Alternative Materials

An alternative to benches are natural rock slabs, as used in McCullough’s project at Howard Pence Elementary School.

Most are aware that anything new we buy and build leaves a carbon footprint. In the attempt to mitigate environmental impact, we are increasingly embracing sustainable practices and seeking eco-friendly options. Common elements in projects can be created in alternative ways that will provide positive benefits to our immediate environment while also creating more attractive spaces for users. For example, instead of installing a bulky metal overhead trellis or shade structure, plant three or four trees together. Not only are you providing functional shade with the tree canopies, but you are also adding more trees which are significant for sequestering carbon in our air. Invest in as many trees as possible. Don’t be afraid to put a tree in the middle of your space. To save energy, use large deciduous trees. In the summer, the shading leaves will provide a cooling effect. In the winter, the lack of leaves will allow the sun to shine through and warm up the buildings. Less energy consumption means less strain on buildings, which could extend their lifespan and lead to a cut in building maintenance costs. Deciduous trees are especially effective on the south and southwest side of buildings and spaces that receive the most sun.

Stop pouring concrete. We have enough of it. For walkways in exterior spaces, look to install something softer and permeable such as decomposed granite, decorative rock, wood decking or even a wood paver. Decomposed granite and pebbles can be supplied from your local decorative stone supplier. Use durable wood products such as Accoya, Kebony, or Black Locust. Always use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products to ensure the wood is ethically sourced. Robi Decking offers a permeable wood paver made from Black Locust trees grown in the United States that is twice the compressive strength of standard concrete, so it can also be used for vehicular and industrial applications. These types of materials allow water to flow through and recharge our ground water while also creating more inviting spaces for people.

Pictured above, wood panels and deck using the durable and environmentally conscious wood product, Kebony, at McCullough’s Safe Harbor Cabrillo Isle project.

Another common harmful practice we see in the industry is the use of weed fabric. Weed fabric does not work. Weeds still grow and in a matter of time the plastic fabric will become exposed, degrade in the sun, shred up, and wash away into our storm drains, not to mention look terrible in your landscape. Save yourself the cost, and please, for the love of Earth, stop using weed fabric.

Instead of a traditional lawn which requires heavy water use and maintenance only to go dormant in the winter, opt for a sustainable lawn alternative such as Carex praegracilis, or for a more compact functional surface, use Kurapia. Kurapiasod has a higher upfront cost but needs 75% less water, does not need to be mowed, has little flowers that attract pollinators, is green all year round, and suppresses weeds. What more could you ask for?

Sustainable Maintenance Practices

Maintenance is a crucial process to ensuring that projects succeed as they are intended. We often find that maintenance practices are not only detrimental to the project, but to the environment as well. Here are a few maintenance practices that can make a difference. If you have wood products in your project, let it weather. Weathered wood offers a timeless aesthetic while also saving chemicals from leaching into the environment. The bonus is also cost savings on maintenance every year.

Native plants at McCullough’s Howard Pence Elementary School project.

Ask your local landscape architect about choosing low maintenance plants. Believe in native plants. Because they are adapted to this environment, they require less water and care than traditional ornamental plants. Less mowing and trimming mean less gasoline powered equipment contributing to unpleasant noise and high levels of air pollutants.

Here's a professional pet peeve of landscape architects: Stop pruning everything! Shrubs don’t need to be trimmed into a ball. We don’t live in France - shaving shrubs are a silly thing of the past. Flowers often end up being chopped off because of the constant trimmings. If you or a client desire symmetrical round shapes, then choose plant species that naturally grow that way, such as Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Golf Ball,’ to avoid using gasoline powered equipment for trimming. If you have a landscape maintenance company maintaining your landscape, please kindly ask them not to cut flowers or prune shrubs until the blooming season is over. Let them know that the flowers are necessary for bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Thriving vegetation is also crucial for our hot urban environment for the carbon sequestration and the cooling effects plants provide.

Choose plant species that naturally grow round shapes, such as Pittosporum Tenuifolium (pictured right), to avoid using gasoline powered equipment.

There is also no need to cut clumping grasses as soon as they go brown. Cutting brown or dormant plants eliminates habitats and nesting opportunities for pollinators, insects, and small animals. If cutting back is necessary, wait until the end of Winter, right before new growth begins in the Springtime. While deciduous trees turn into the traditional fall colors of red and yellow, the plants in California turn into a beautiful range of tans, browns, and rust colors. These are the natural ‘Fall’ colors of California, let us embrace it.

If you own a landscape maintenance company, please educate your team on how to properly maintain plants. Shrubs that are unnecessarily cut in half cannot provide the environmental benefits that we desperately need. Not only will this greatly benefit our environment, but your project will look better, and will prevent a landscape architect from having a heart attack when they see the Dietes or Chondropetalum slashed in half.

Landscape is something tangible that people relate to. Here at McCullough, we believe that landscape should be functional, providing something in return to the people and the environment. We hope these design alternatives demonstrate how simple and small actions in a project can make such an impact. With space being a precious resource in our cities, each redevelopment is an opportunity to return the ecologies that we have replaced with urban sprawl. The environment will thank you, the users will thank you, and so will your pocket.

Designing Sustainable Landscapes

Practical Design Solutions and the Beauty of Re-Use and Re-Purpose

Benefits to Alternative Materials

Sustainable Maintenance Practices