Congratulations to Johanna Mall on becoming a Licensed Landscape Architect

McCullough is delighted to congratulate Johanna Mall on completing the licensure process and becoming a licensed landscape architect in the State of California.

Johanna has been an invaluable addition to the McCullough team for the past four and a half years and has shown incredible growth in enhancing her skills and honing her creativity over the years. She brings fresh ideas and her passion for design stems from her principle belief to do what is right for the environment and for communities.

The cultural integration between her Mexican, German, and American roots gives her a unique perspective to connect people and places with an element of empathy for the spaces she designs. She strives to apply “genius loci” to capture “the spirit of place” by designing places with a unique, vernacular cultural identity that people feel connected to.

Johanna is an expert in planting design, understanding of planting materials and has extensive knowledge of southwestern regional plant species. She is a professional in the field in every sense, and a go-to in the office for professional and impassioned advice on all matters landscape architecture.

“Johanna came to us as an eager young lady with a drive to learn and grow.  I grow to appreciate her more every day and can proudly say that I often now go to her for guidance, inspiration, and advice.  She is truly one of a kind and we are honored to have her in our presence!”

- David McCullough, Principal Landscape Architect

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McCullough Opens Oakland Office, Strengthening Northern California Presence

Here at McCullough, we are thrilled to announce the expansion of our services in the San Francisco Bay Area with the opening of our new office in Downtown Oakland. As an award-winning landscape and urban design firm, this expansion not only signifies our growth but also reinforces our commitment to Northern California.

We understand that outdoor spaces play a vital role in transforming urban environments into vibrant communities. Over the past few years, the significance of these spaces has become even more pronounced, with outdoor areas serving as the connective tissue that enhances the success of properties and their surrounding areas. With the establishment of our Oakland office and the expansion of our team, we are poised to collaborate more closely with owners, developers, architects, and other consultants. Our goal is to share our knowledge and expertise effectively, ensuring the creation of exceptional landscapes.

Leading our operations in Oakland is our Senior Associate designer, Mahalakshmi (Maha) Balachandran. Maha brings a wealth of experience to the table, having worked extensively on global projects from India to San Rafael and Sausalito, California. Her dedication and expertise make her the perfect fit for spearheading our endeavors in the Bay Area.

Akshay Badwe, ASLA, PLA, Associate Landscape Architect

Joining Maha is our newest team member, Akshay Badwe, ASLA, PLA, an award-winning CLARB Certified Landscape Architect. With over 15 years of experience, Akshay has contributed to projects worldwide and brings a fresh perspective to our expanding team. His expertise will further enrich our capabilities as we embark on new ventures in the Bay Area.

Our portfolio in the Bay Area and Northern California includes remarkable collaborations with partners such as HPI Architecture, Westfield, RDC, Texas Valley Holdings, The Michaels Organization, TCA Architects, and Herman Construction. Some notable projects we have undertaken include the Davis Lumber Yard, The Bridge District, and student housing developments at Las Positas College, Chabot College, Solano College, and Evergreen Valley College. These projects stand as testaments to our commitment to excellence and our ability to create transformative outdoor spaces that resonate with the community.

Akshay and Maha at our new Oakland office

Find us at 1111 Broadway in Oakland, CA!

At McCullough, we believe that our expansion into Oakland is a significant step toward fostering innovation and elevating the design landscape in Northern California. We are excited to collaborate with local visionaries. Stay tuned for updates on our latest projects and initiatives.

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Celebrating the Award-Winning La Semilla Project: A Catalyst for Environmental Justice and Climate Resiliency

We are thrilled to announce that the La Semilla project team has received a Merit Award in the Unbuilt Category at the 2023 AIA San Diego Design Awards. This recognition is a testament to the vision, dedication, and ingenuity of the team behind this groundbreaking neighborhood park located in San Ysidro, California, near the US/Mexico border. With the client, Casa Familiar Inc., Architect, Workshop B Architects, Inc., and Benjamin Arcia, M.U.D., of McCullough as Landscape Architect, the La Semilla project has become a shining example of climate resiliency and environmental justice.

La Semilla, meaning "the seed" in Spanish, symbolizes the numerous efforts of the park. Just like a seed holds the potential to grow into a mighty tree, this project serves as a launchpad for a neighborhood-scale movement focused on environmental justice and climate resiliency. Spanning over a 7,000 square foot lot, La Semilla not only functions as a demonstration area but also as a community connector, seamlessly integrating with Casa's Community Land Trust (CLT) properties on the Cultural Corridor. This corridor serves as the vibrant heart of San Ysidro, bringing together art, community, and greening initiatives.

At its core, La Semilla incorporates a permaculture program that not only produces food but also shares ecologically sound gardening practices with local residents. By connecting people to the living world around them and inspiring healthier food choices, the park becomes a catalyst for redefining consumption patterns. Visitors to La Semilla experience the joy of sinking their teeth into an organic, home-grown tomato, which often sparks a newfound passion for gardening. Beyond food production, the park serves as a showcase for affordable resiliency strategies. Through architectural components, site features, and special programming, it demonstrates off-the-shelf products, home modifications, and backyard installations that save money, energy, water, and time for the community. By presenting these solutions at a domestic scale, La Semilla empowers neighbors to embrace sustainable practices and embark on their own sustainability journeys.

Sustainability Through Urban Park Development

The project's goals encompass fighting climate change in a meaningful way, promoting affordable and low-maintenance gardening and construction practices, providing on-site photovoltaic panels for electric vehicle charging stations, and leveraging the proximity to a light-rail station to encourage active transportation as part of a multi-modal transportation strategy. La Semilla acknowledges the pressing need for safer food and cleaner air in the local community. While the park itself may not be able to feed everyone or single-handedly mitigate air pollution, it serves as a living laboratory for techniques and products that neighbors can affordably implement in their own homes. By disseminating knowledge and skills, the project enlists neighbors in a decentralized, egalitarian effort to transform consumption patterns and improve local air quality. The park's design also considers the abundance of off-street parking spaces in the neighborhood, envisioning their potential as areas for growing food or air-remediating plants. Moreover, La Semilla promotes alternative modes of transportation to reduce environmental impact, emphasizing the importance of walkability and accessibility.

In addition to its environmental and resiliency objectives, La Semilla aims to create a neighborhood park that caters to the daily rhythms, practical needs, and year-round celebrations of the community.

As part of the ongoing transformation of an alley into San Ysidro's pedestrian-oriented Cultural Corridor, the park acts as a catalyst for this process.

The surrounding neighborhood, although underserved in several aspects, benefits from a chain of existing parks that are highly utilized and cherished by residents. La Semilla builds upon this foundation, expanding the network of green spaces to further advance the pursuit of environmental justice.

The Merit Award for La Semilla recognizes the significant impact it will have on fostering environmental justice, promoting climate resiliency, and empowering the community. This accolade is a testament to the dedication and collaboration of the project team, whose innovative design and commitment to sustainability have set a new standard in urban park development. The La Semilla project serves as an inspiring example for communities worldwide, demonstrating the power of collective action and shared spaces in creating a more sustainable and equitable future.

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Benjamin Arcia Presents at World Design Capital Event | Transborder Landscapes | San Diego x Tijuana

Join us in revisiting a panel discussion held at Woodbury University, where established practitioners gathered to explore the intersection of design and our unique border cities: San Diego and Tijuana. In this captivating presentation, McCullough's Senior Associate, Benjamin Arcia, ASLA, MUD, shares his insights and ideas on the transformative power of urban design and landscape architecture in our region.

In his presentation titled "Separated/Together: Sketches of a Transborder Landscape," Benjamin Arcia invites you on a journey of imagination and exploration. Through vivid sketches and astute observations, he unveils a vision of what our streets and open spaces can become, considering the intricate tapestry of ecosystems, microclimates, and social dynamics that shape our surroundings.

Transborder Landscapes Course at Woodbury University

Transborder Landscapes Programme is a three-year long-term research on the US/MX Transborder Landscapes, addressing complex socio-political, climate and territorial questions.

Transborder Landscapes examines the Tijuana River juxtaposed between US and Mexico. San Diego and Tijuana face contrasting economies, cultures, and policies, despite the shared landscape. This dual governance led to the demise of the river landscape because of largely opposing agendas between the two nations.

In response to the socio-economic impact the landscape poses, Transborder Landscapes looks at the Tijuana River, an interface between San Diego and Tijuana, to inform policy through design interventions, cartography, and agency through the local communities. The course will look at the geomorphological process of the region and the methods in which each country manages the river. The stark differences between the two countries will be examined at the local level and the impacts it poses through its landscape.

McCullough was proud to sponsor this event, and we look forward to more World Design Capital related events.

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Designing for Tomorrow, Today - Lessons Learned from ULI's Climate Resilience Summit and Spring Meeting

Andrew Schlesinger, Associate at McCullough, recently attended the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) 2023 Resilience Summit and Spring Meeting in Toronto. In this article, Andrew delves into lessons learned at the Summit and reflects on key takeaways with Lindsay Brugger, AIA, Vice President of Resilience and Urban Resilience Director at ULI.  

The Importance of Investing in Resiliency Today

For those still skeptical of the effectiveness of resilience measures, consider this: imagine a commercial real estate property management company making a proactive decision to invest in more shade trees and shade structures as one aspect of resilience. By providing much-needed shade to alleviate the scorching heat of summer days, this foresight will greatly enhance the comfort and well-being of site users down the road and may reduce the building’s energy load.

Now, imagine the same property owner decides not to invest in a redesign to keep their property comfortable. Which space do you want to be in when we are experiencing a heat wave in 2035?

Resilience as a Multidisciplinary and Solutions-Based Approach

Lindsay Brugger, AIA, Vice President of Resilience and Urban Resilience Director at ULI and Andrew Schlesinger, Associate at McCullough

On Monday, May 15th, ULI hosted its Resilience Summit to kick off their Spring Meeting. Much like “sustainability,” the term resilience is a loaded concept. Rooted in design, resilience works to integrate solutions to current and future climate challenges into our spaces and places so we can thrive despite the climate challenges of our era and eras yet to come. (Think of more shade, less water usage, defensible fire spaces, stormwater runoff and sea level protection; the list goes on…)

With this concept of designed adaptation as its crux, the implementation of resilience presents a site specific, systems-based approach to addressing formidable global design challenges. The Resilience Summit brought together a diverse mix of design and development professionals to share best practices, lessons learned, and to strategize how to prepare buildings, cities, and communities most effectively for the impacts of climate change.     

Key Takeaways from ULI’s Resilience Summit 2023:

Providing the closing remarks at the Resilience Summit, Lindsay Brugger, AIA, summarized the event with five key takeaways. Here, we list Lindsay’s major concepts that we as designers, developers, and citizens need to be considering as we influence the built environment of our respective spaces and places:

1. Climate change is not a future problem – it’s a now problem

We often talk of years like 2030, 2050, and 2100 when on the topic of climate change. But the climate has already changed and continues to change. As designers and developers, we need to design for a range of future climate scenarios to ensure a prosperous tomorrow.

Elizabeth Yee, Executive Vice President of Programs at the Rockefeller Foundation presenting at the ULI Resilience Summit

To do this, we need to familiarize ourselves with the data projections that scientists, insurance companies, and others are publishing related to our cities and regions - 5, 10, 20 years down the road. This data needs to influence how we view our sites today.

As we study the trends and innovations of professional designers and developers, we also need to learn from community-led activists, who hold valuable lived experience and are generating their own cost-effective solutions to addressing climate change in their neighborhoods.

To learn more, visit Environmental Justice and Real Estate | ULI Knowledge Finder

2. Climate change is a threat multiplier that demands “progress over perfection”

Not only is climate change here today, but it’s also magnifying the challenges before us. From disasters that are increasing in frequency and intensity, to the billions of dollars in investment that we are losing in worker productivity due to extreme heat events, climate change is a compounding threat that will increasingly affect nearly every aspect of our lives.

We need economic, social, and environmental resilience to address the cascading impacts of climate change and need to prioritize strategies that offer co-benefits, paying dividends even on non-disaster days. There is no magic bullet for the multifaceted challenge of climate change and there is no time to waste. We need to lead with our best attempted solutions to these complex problems even if we risk occasionally getting it wrong in the process. We must prioritize progress over perfection.

To learn more, visit Greening Buildings for Healthier People | ULI Knowledge Finder

3. The importance of data and investing for multiple wins

Insurance companies are already leveraging AI and data analytics to predictively determine high risk areas and investors are similarly looking to better understand long-term climate risk and projected future site conditions.

Decarbonizing our built environment will help to stave off the worst-case scenarios of climate change. But we can’t stop there. Making real progress will require a balanced approach of combining the concepts of climate change mitigation (reducing greenhouse gas emissions) and climate change adaptation (planning for living within our changing climate).

We need to be pragmatic with our objectives and work to integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts into all our scopes and scales of design and development, as informed by data and successful investment.

 To learn more, visit How to Choose, Use, and Better Understand Climate-Risk Analytics | ULI Knowledge Finder

4. The need for scalable innovation

As we seek this balance, it’s impossible to dismiss the sheer scope of our climate challenges. We need scalable innovation and solutions to tackle climate change effectively.

Learning from the best practices of the Resilience Summit, we should have our goals set high for advancing portfolio-wide risk reduction. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) assets may surpass $50 trillion by 2025 and we're already seeing innovative, scalable models of development that address multiple ESG goals. For example, this development creates new home for Toronto Public Library Branch (building.ca), which describes a model for social infrastructure that is now being replicated across the city.

This progress is inspiring, and we will need to continually scale up our solutions to meet the demands of climate change and adaptation in our built environment.

Read more here: Social Spaces Resilient Communities - Social Infrastructure as a Climate Strategy for Real Estate | ULI Knowledge Finder

5. The importance of partnership

We simply can’t do this alone. Each of us in our respective disciplines and professional circles need to leverage our strengths and collaborate with others.

Every single session at the Resilience Summit touched on this need for partnership. Whether partnerships between philanthropic, public, and private entities, or between developers, local governments, and community members, these collaborations have the potential to create jobs, accelerate investment, and catalyze the transformation of spaces and places.

There is always room for new partnerships. For example, ULI's Water Wise initiative includes a coalition on drought resilient development that brings together the public and private sector.

Applying Lessons Learned from ULI San Diego / Tijuana + McCullough

Chris Clark, Executive Director, ULI San Diego/Tijuana and Tatiana Perez, Senior Associate, ULI San Diego/ Tijuana with chapter members celebrating at the ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto

There is the famous Chinese Proverb: “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.” This adage holds incredibly true, especially when connected with resilience and climate design work.

Around the world and even in San Diego, shade, and strategies for cooling cities are becoming priority number one for resilience agendas. Whether in Sierra Leone under the guidance of their Chief Heat Officer to new permitting requirements under San Diego’s Climate Action Plan to provide shade tree canopy coverage of at least 50% of all public right of way hardscaping area, cities are taking adaptation to climate change seriously, and for good reason. ULI created an in-depth report titled, Scorched, on the topic of managing extreme heat.

At McCullough, we are integrating resilient design strategies into every project. From selecting climate-ready trees that will thrive today and in the future despite hotter, drier conditions, to using more efficient drip irrigation methods, water recycling and reuse, or promoting “softscape” materials over hardscaping, we are working to prioritize both climate change mitigation and adaptation through our design.

We are working with our clients and project collaborators to reduce our negative climate impacts and to maximize regenerative and solutions-based design.

We are also implementing the use of Carbon Positive Path Tool, designed by landscape architects to allow project managers to track the carbon footprint and sequestration potential of proposed projects.  

Next Steps for ULI San Diego / Tijuana and McCullough

Working with our collaborators, McCullough will work to guide our clients and stakeholders to make responsible stewardship decisions for the long-term. We remain committed to leveraging landscape architecture to make the greatest positive impact on our environment – both in adaptation and mitigation – one project site at a time.

For those interested in learning more about resilience efforts in San Diego and Tijuana, here are a few resources and events to put onto your radar.

First, everyone should read San Diego’s 2022 Climate Action Plan, which lists the strategies used for a more sustainable place to live, work, and play.

Second, ULI San Diego / Tijuana will be hosting their Bi-National Resilience Summit (in partnership with World Design Capital) in April 2024. This event will bring together leaders in design and development to share best practices, innovations and insights into resilience and sustainability for our region. The summit will explore how professionals and communities on both sides of the border are addressing issues such as water resources, defensible fire requirements, heat and shade management, reuse of materials, and the latest in renewable energy and low-carbon building methods.

Mark your calendar for April 2024 and check back with https://sandiego-tijuana.uli.org/ for more information. We look forward to seeing you there!

Lastly, the Urban Land Institute will be hosting their 5th Annual ULI Resilience Summit in New York City, NY on April 12, 2024! Read more at www.uli.org/resiliencesummit.

Additional Resilience Resources:

To learn more about ULI’s Urban Resilience Program and inspiring case studies, please visit links below:

• Urban Resilience Program website: uli.org/resilience

• Major Reports and Resources: https://americas.uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/urban-resilience-program/about/reports/

• City Resilience Strategies: https://americas.uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/urban-resilience-program/city-resilience-strategies/

• Climate Risk and Real Estate Investment: https://americas.uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/urban-resilience-program/climate-risk-and-real-estate-investment/

• Drought Resilience: https://americas.uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/urban-resilience-program/drought-resilience/

• Flood Preparedness: https://americas.uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/urban-resilience-program/flood-preparness/

• Heat Mitigation: https://americas.uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/urban-resilience-program/extreme-heat-2/

• Wildfire Resilience: https://americas.uli.org/research/centers-initiatives/urban-resilience-program/wildfire-risk/

Interactive Library of Case Studies:

• Home - ULI Developing Urban Resilience

• Firebreak: Wildfire Resilience Strategies for Real Estate - ULI Developing Urban Resilience

• Scorched: Extreme Heat and Real Estate - ULI Developing Urban Resilience

• Resilient Parks and Open Spaces - ULI Developing Urban Resilience

• Green Infrastructure - ULI Developing Urban Resilience

• Buildings Prepared for Sea Level Rise - ULI Developing Urban Resilience

• Policies Enhancing Resilience - ULI Developing Urban Resilience

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