West Elm

The client wanted to develop a flagship green retail store, that was not only LEED-certified building, but also iconic and memorable, and built on a very small footprint. While at a previous firm, Brent served as the project manager and lead designer for the landscape architecture and stormwater-related engineering pieces of the project. A combination of living roofs, greenscreens, and flow-through stormwater planters, were designed to meet and exceed both LEED and Emeryville’s, progressive stormwater regulations, but also to serve as a green icon for the neighborhood. The project showed that water can be managed, onsite, even with an extremely small footprint. The living roof is a selection of native, meadow grasses and the stormwater planters, finished with corten siding, support riparian vegetation while retaining 2’ of water below the soil. Brent oversaw the project through a difficult planning approval, with presentations to the planning commission and skeptical public works engineers, through Construction Documentation, and successful construction.

Location: Emeryville, CA