LASN is a photographically oriented, professional journal featuring topics of concern and state-of-the-art projects designed or influenced by registered Landscape Architects.
Issue link: https://landscapearchitect.epubxp.com/i/320919
56 Landscape Architect and Specifier News "It never rains in Southern California," songwriters Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood wrote in 1972. Water is a scarce resource in the coastal desert landscape and climate of San Diego, but when it does rain, it is both dramatic and fleeting. Innovative site design at the University of California, San Diego's new Charles David Keeling Apartments for second-year residents established an elegant system to capture this fickle natural resource and increase campus sustainability. Named for famed oceanographer Roger Revelle, who was instrumental in founding the university, Revelle College at UC San Diego already had a propensity for eco-friendly practices. Aptly, the new housing earned its name after rigorous scrutiny by the family of Dr. Charles David Keeling, a Scripps scientist and Revelle College professor, who first alerted the world to the possibility of the human impact on global atmospheric carbon. The new apartment facilities brought displaced students who had to live in other colleges' housing units back to their own campus, creating a space for both learning and living. The university hired Spurlock Poirier Landscape Architects, along with Kieran Timberlake Architecture, to lead the project. Kieran Timberlake designed the 500-bed student dormitory, and Spurlock Poirier was responsible for site planning and open space programming, from the early stages of the project through construction administration. As a result of the project's environmental efforts, the Keeling Apartments achieved LEED-NC Platinum certification from the United States Green Building Council in 2012, and is the first LEED Platinum student housing in the University of California system. Above To unify the Keeling Apartments with the rest of Revelle College, the site features 1960s-inspired local lava rock walls updated with contemporary detail. Plantings include California sycamore, San Diego sedge, deer grass, California gray rush and dwarf coyote bush. right Buildings on the north, west and south sides frame the central courtyard, and the southern side of the west tower is raised on piers to allow natural light into the open space for residents. An onsite wastewater recycling system at the west tower, which filters and treats shower, sink and laundry runoff to tertiary standards, is a pilot project for the UC system and mitigates demand for water in the landscape. CREDiT: SPURLoCK PoiRiER LAnDSCAPE ARChiTECTS 54-63.indd 56 5/21/14 4:48 PM