Landscape Architecture in Palo Alto City Essay Example for Free

Landscape Architecture in Palo Alto City Essay Palo Alto City, a city known because of many famous landmarks and buildings, is located in Santa Clara County, in California of United States. The named of the city was derived from a name of a tall oak tree at the banks of the San Franciscquito Creek bordering Menlo Park called El Palo Alto. The geographic characteristic of the city is at the northern end of the Silicon Valley. The city is also situated near the Stanford University and is known as home of many huge companies in the high-technology industry like Hewlett-Packard. (Bowling, 2007) History of Palo Alto The history of Palo Alto city was traced back in 1979 Gaspar de Portola made an Ohlone settlement in the said city. To commemorate what happened in this place, a plaque was made in order to remember the histiroy for Palo Alto City. The plaque was located at Middlefield Road and Webster Street, (Bowling, 2007) Landscape Architecture Landscape architecture is the art of planning, designing, developing, managing and rehabilitating a land for a specified purpose. Landscape architecture is a profession that is combination of different inter disciplinary field like mathematics, geography, engineering, art, horticulture, social science, politics, history and philosophy. The duties of a landscape architecture can range from different roles like designing of a museum, parks, site planning for commercial buildings, as well as residential lands, and development and maintenance of nature lands like forest. Arastradero Preserve There are many famous buildings and landmarks located in the city. Some of the notable landmarks located in Palo Alto are the Arastradero Preserve. Arastradero Preserve, which is officially known as Enid W. Pearson- Arastradero Open Space Preserve, is a nature preserve which serves as parking lot of the city. The landscape architects designed the Arastradero Preserve so that people can have a biking, hiking and horseback riding session. The preserve is a combination of savanna grassland and broadleaf evergreen forest that is suitable for a nature preserve location. This made also the preserve to be a habitat for many wildlife species like bobcats, deer and diverse birds. (City, 2001) Arizona Cactus Garden Another popular landmark in Palo Alto is the Arizona Cactus Garden located in the Stanford University. Arizona Cactus Garden is a botanical garden specializing in the production of different cacti and succulents. The Arizona Cactus Garden is open for public visit. The Arizona Cactus Garden was designed by Rudolph Ulrich, a landscape architect, for Jane and Leland Stanford. The garden was open in public on 1883. The design of the garden was planned to be near at the residence of the Stanford family as well at the Stanford estate. The garden was designed in such a way it is divided in to two parts, the Eastern and Western Hemisphere. The Eastern Hemisphere part contains aloes, jade plants and other succulents from Europe, Asia and Africa while the Eastern Hemisphere contains cacti that are native in America. The garden was designed and made as public landmarks were people can view different varieties of cactus and succulents. (Bowling, 2007) Stanford University One of the most famous landmarks located in Palo Alto is the Leland Stanford Junior University or simply Stanford University. It is a private university that is situated at the center of Silicon Valley. It was in 1891 the university was established under the supervision of the governor of California, Leland Stanford together with his wife Jane Stanford. The name was derived from their only son, Leland Stanford Jr. who died at his teenage years. The university was firstly known as The Farm because it is situated at eh Leland Stanford’s horse farm and offers courses for both male and female students. (Bowling, 2007) Stanford makes sure that the university will be of good quality that is why he consulted first some key person that may give a big help in the construction of the campus. Some of these person were Francis Amasa Walker, president of another university which is specialize in the filed of engineering, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and second is Frederick Law Olmsted which is a famous landscape architect. The main role of Olmsted is on the general plans and concept for the proposed university. These are the constructions of the buildings and the removal of hillside sites that will favor for more practical flatlands. Another landscape architect that helps in the design of the campus is Charles Allerton Coolidge. Coolidge used the concept Richardsonian Romanesque style that was derived from his teacher, Henry Hobson Richardson. The said style is has the properties of rectangular stone buildings that are joined by arcades of semi-circle arches. There was also another design that was incorporated at Stanford University, the Mission Revival. The Mission Revival is a Spanish-colonial style and is characterized as red tile roofs and solid sandstone masonry that hold a discrete Californian appearance. The red tile roof has a good combination to bright blue skies making it famous to the people of the city. (Bowling, 2007) The major open space is formed by an on-structure, two-level plaza. It is layered with linear arrays of granite and quartzite aligned to echo the San Andreas Fault line below, and subtly forms gathering areas of various sizes for outdoor classrooms. The lower and more private courtyard provides light to the surrounding laboratories and offices, and exposes a dry riverbed that continues the north/south fault line, while expressing the character of a lower stratum and accommodating gathering places for students, faculty and researchers. (Bowling, 2007) The Stanford University is a huge campus were almost basic building that is required in a university is made. There are different buildings for different department of the campus. There are also dormitories and student housing were the students can reside. Stanford University Arboretum Stanford University Arboretum, which is located at Stanford University, was also designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. First, the land where the arboretum is located was planted by live oak trees. Olmsted designed the arboretum so that the public is free to visit the park. The orientation of the trees to be planted was a factor that was considered by Olmsted as well as the spacing of the trees. Olmsted sees to it that the arboretum will serve as a public park. Jane Stanford finds the arboretum essential to the people of Palo Alto and once said to the people of the city; (Bowling, 2007) In this enlarged Arboretum it is desired that there shall be exhibited to advantage all the trees and wood plants of the world that may be expected to grow to mature natural forms under the climatic and other conditions of the locality. Byxbee Park Byxbee Park, which was designed by Peter Richards and Michael Oppenheimer, shows of the site’s unique form and characteristics. Is shows the inspiration of landfill, slough, marsh, wind, and sky. The park does not allow buildings to be made inside the park making it a very natural in purpose. The intertwined elements of the park make the park a very sensitive environmental landmark. Cantor Center for Visual Arts The Cantor Center for Visual Arts, which is located in Stanford University, is another landmark in Palo Alto. The Cantor Center for Visual Arts is a museum that contains about 24 galleries, terraces, and sculpture gardens. The museum was established when the university was established in 1891 as a memorial park for their late son. Hewlett Packard Courtyard The Hewlett Packard Courtyard was designed to show the aesthetic value of nature. Hewlett Packard Courtyard is a huge company specializing in the production of computer hardware and the likes like printers. Hedges, designer of the courtyard, design the rooms of the employers of the company in such a way that they can view the outside environment. The terminal wires of the computer being utilized allow the programmers to work outside the rooms. Three-dimensional landforms ripple out from the round cafeteria addition, creating a romantic play against the beaux-arts structure of the courtyard, and dividing the space to create more intimate areas. (Bowling, 2007) Conclusion The role of a landscape architect is very important when buildings and landmarks are being constructed. Because the aesthetic value of the proposed building is their product. It must be taken in to account the proper way of designing, planning as well as developing the building. It is in the hands of a landscape architect the success of the building because this will reflect the popularity of the building.