James Lord and Roderick Wyllie, partners at the San Francisco–based landscape firm Surfacedesign, acknowledge that new tech parks can often feel anonymous. To prevent this effect, especially when working with corporate clients, they always seek to strike the balance between flexibility and character in their landscapes. “We’re not asking people to come and be nowhere—we’re asking people to come and be where they are,” explains Wyllie. The “where,” in this case, is the 2.6-acre “Beach” at Expedia Group’s new campus on the shores of Seattle’s Puget Sound. Formerly belonging to a biotech company, the entire 40-acre site became the travel giant’s headquarters last fall.
The Beach, a privately owned park that is open to the public, is part of a larger campus that includes a new building by ZGF and a small pavilion by Aidlin Darling, all tied together by an overall landscaping scheme. This waterfront area, which is a patchwork of tall grasses and, in addition, layers pebbles and driftwood throughout the site, also overlaps with a portion of the Elliott Bay Trail, a popular running and biking path for locals. Here, Surfacedesign separated the existing bike and pedestrian paths and rounded a 90-degree turn into a gentle arc for added safety.
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