From transit-adjacent lot to neighborhood heartbeat.
📍 Gateway Crossing Park in Santa Clara, CA serves as a high-utilization anchor for a dense, mixed-use community. Designed by @petersen_studio , the park utilizes a sophisticated natural materiality to ground the urban site. Three key design moves:
Organic Geometry: Intersecting circular towers and a matching pavilion create a cohesive, non-linear flow that breaks up the surrounding urban grid.
Sculpted Topography: Custom-designed berms that meet the cylindrical playground towers add interesting verticality, creating opportunities for embankment sliding and integrated climbing.
The Lantern Effect: By night, the timber towers transform into glowing beacons. This “lantern” aesthetic extends the site’s usability into the evening and establishes a distinct visual landmark for the neighborhood.
By blending robust timber forms with artful cladding and thoughtful landforms, the project provides a tactile, adventurous destination that feels both architectural and inviting.
Collaborator: Petersen Studio
Client: Holland Partner Group
Daytime Photos: @photofloodstudio
Night photo: Petersen Studio
#LandscapeArchitecture #UrbanDesign #SantaClara #PublicSpace #Placemaking Topography PetersenStudio SiteDesign
Our studio is growing! We are looking for designers who are passionate about the profession of landscape architecture. Interested? Reach out here, via email, or our ASLA JobLink posting to connect.
We stopped by #emberstomp in Marin this weekend to check out the burn demonstrations, goats, helicopters, and Frank Lloyd Wright. (Key mulch takeaways: Mineral mulches like gravel are best in Zone 0. Composted organic mulch is safer than wood chips. Shredded mulch and mini mulch are less likely to smolder and flame than chunkier mulches.)
California fuchsia (Epilobium canum ‘Catalina’) in all its summer glory at Burlingame Point. Swipe for the green caterpillar, soon to be a hummingbird moth (Hyles lineata). #californialandscape #nativeplants
It was great to celebrate the opening of Ponds to Gardens at Pacific Research Center with Biomed Realty last week. The project transforms 1.5 acres of former water features into colorful native and low-water gardens with shaded spaces for outdoor work and relaxation. The plants are small now, but we’re excited to share how they grow over the coming seasons.
Thankful to collaborate with @bkfengineers@cumminggroup@rossibuilders and BMR.
#landscapearchitecture #adaptivereuse #californianativeplants #waterconservation
Happy New Year! Coming in 2025: neighborhood park at Gateway Crossings in Santa Clara open in early 2025. Panorama of December's progress shows the dog park in the foreground, with the park pavilion and play area beyond.
A final visit to 24th and Waverly (Lark) before the movable furniture arrives. Mixed meadow in the foreground (yarrow flowering now), shade canopy beyond.
#roofdeck #landscapearchitecture #highrise #greenroof #shadecanopy
Construction observation in the shade of the meadow hill at 24th and Harrison in Oakland.
#roofdeck #smoothconvexcurves #nomowlawn #meadow #mound #landscapearchitecture #highrise #underconstruction
