This restudy of the master plan for the 200-hectare Hewlett Packard site at Roseville, undertaken with architects Holland, East & Duvivier, led to a new master plan for the 23,000-square-meter service, repair, and distribution facility on the site as well as full landscape architectural services for the upgrading of the surrounding landscape. The plan details building placement, road layout, grading, entries, pedestrian ways, employee recreation areas, and open space, while accommodating a modular building type intended to serve as a prototype for future Hewlett Packard expansion.
The property had previously suffered from difficult soil conditions and a series of long, hot summers that had killed off all previous landscaping efforts. The solution, proposed by SWA, was not to try to master the environment but to respect and appreciate it. Drought-tolerant native grassland was reestablished wherever possible, and against the background of the vast, open plain of the Sacramento Valley, shade was introduced wherever possible. A poplar-lined pedestrian walkway is raised above the Chinese Elm-shaded parking lot, leading into the building. Oaks and Bradford pear trees were used to unify the recreational complex and to give its large sports courts areas both scale and shade. To help the trees thrive, root competition from shrubs, ground cover, and lawns was eliminated, and the permeable ground plan emphasizes localized and individual watering, as well as a sub-drain system to mitigate flash floods.
PayPal Global Headquarters
The workplace of the new millennium is a far cry from the indoor-only, parking-centric “concrete jungle” of the past. After its 2014 separation from eBay, PayPal engaged SWA in a three-part, campus-wide improvement project that exemplifies corporate campus trends by shifting the focus to outdoor amenities, flexibility, and life/work balance for its more than 4...
Ichigaya Forest
“Ichigaya Forest” is the privately owned, publicly accessible, major open space on Dai Nippon Printing Company’s 5.4-hectare new world headquarters in the Shinjuku Ward. Vertical development and production modernization that extends underground was made possible the creation of this 3.2-hectare open space. Over half the site is now planted wi...
Lite-On Headquarters
This major Taiwanese electronics company chose Taipei’s “Electronics Center” overlooking the Gee Long River for their new headquarters. The overall concept is of a 25-story slender tower rising above a sloped landscape podium that covers much of the site. Below-grade parking slopes toward the river on one side, with the urban center on the ot...
Weyerhaeuser Corporate Headquarters
Founding SWA partner Peter Walker collaborated with architects SOM on site analysis, planning, and landscape development for this hugely influential corporate headquarters, which remains notable for its unique integration of landscape, architecture, and environmental stewardship. The 425-acre site was chosen by the design team with George Weyerhaeuser for its ...