2.9. Landscape management and design
Issues of Landscape Architecture Magazine were examined in a search of how landscape architects have addressed sustainable development, or environmentally sensitive design in industrial areas. There are currently no examples of landscape architecture addressing EIPs, but there were examples of environmental corporate design. The results of the search were disappointing. `Pacific Bell Administration' (1989)Center was supposedly designed to fit the site, with attention to solar orientation, prevailing winds, preservation of native vegetation, and visual quality. It was alleged that you could not tell the difference between the native and man-made landscape. That image is not conveyed in the photographs of the site. What is conveyed is a sleek, high maintenance corporate design. The same is true of the IBM Precinct at Solana ( Design Honor Award, 1983), where a prairie restoration and use of wildflowers in the landscape are considered innovative.
The problem with the examples in Landscape Architecture Magazine is the manner in which they are reported. The common sense environmental approaches are portrayed as an innovation. Designing with the environment is what landscape architects are supposed to do. Environmental design should be the norm, not the exception. On the other hand, a large number of articles in other journals such as, Urban Land and Landscape and Urban Planning, about environmentally sensitive projects shows an attempt by the profession to address environmental issues.
The closest example found of really integrating corporate design into the landscape was the Schlumberger System Center in Austin (Ecology, 1996). The 200 000 square feet of buildings were nestled among the trees with maximum preservation as a goal. Only native Texas plant species were used in the design. The result is a successful example of sustainable development. The design considered the needs of all the site users: the employees, with hiking trails and outdoor spaces and the golden-cheeked warbler, an endangered bird species on the site, with the preservation of its habitat.