At a Glance
The guidelines identify synergies to enhance landscape and healing, climate-specific strategies, ecological literacy, integrated water management, and building design strategies.
Project Description
The Stanford Health Care (SHC) campus, within Stanford University, offers patients, visitors, students, and staff an array of outdoor spaces to enjoy for aesthetics, relaxing, and gathering. As part of its campus planning efforts, SHC identified sustainability goals and targets, which included Sustainable Landscape Design Guidelines as a priority. To meet this need, Biohabitats provided ecological planning services to OJB, the project lead.
To begin, Biohabitats conducted an ecological characterization of the 44-acre campus, based on a rapid site reconnaissance, data review, interviews, and observations of tree canopy, biodiversity, soil health, hydrology, and connectivity. This work informed an initial framework based on landscape themes, functional management zones, and sustainability goals and opportunities. Regenerative ecological principles were then incorporated into the guidelines to support biodiversity, minimize water use and soil disturbances, and enhance opportunities for connecting visitors to nature.
Future campus improvement projects will benefit from the consistent design and maintenance practices as well as inspiration to incorporate sustainability measures in a range of project types. In developing these guidelines, the team helped Stanford Health Care create a roadmap to ensure adaptive management strategies support a cohesive, healthier landscape for decades to come.
Details
Bioregion
Cascadia
Physiographic Province
Pacific Border
Watershed
Saratoga Creek-Frontal San Francisco Bay Estuaries
Expertise Areas
Climate Change, Conservation, Ecological Restoration, Water
Owner
Stanford University
Location
Palo Alto, California, United States
Project Team
- OJB
- Sherwood
- HKS Architects