SURFACEDESIGN

SURFACEDESIGN: Material Landscapes

James A. Lord, Roderick Wyllie, Geoff di Girolamo
The Monacelli Press, October 2019

Flexicover | 8-1/2 x 10-1/2 inches | 304 pages | English | ISBN: 978-1580935500 | $50.00

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:

This monograph explores the design philosophy of the three partners of Surfacedesign, who are committed to solutions that emerge from the site itself and challenge conventional approaches to landscape. The work is informed by the vast openness and frontier spirit of the West, expressed in rugged materials and sustainable planting. Surfacedesign focuses on cultivating a sense of connection to the built and natural world, pushing people to engage with the landscape in new ways. The design approach emphasizes and celebrates the unique context and imaginative potential of each project. The studio’s process is rooted in asking novel questions and listening to a site and its users, a process that has led to engaging and inspiring landscapes that are rugged, contemporary, and crafted.

Twenty-five projects are presented, ranging in scale from the landscape approach to Auckland International Airport in New Zealand to intimate residential gardens in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Featured are Anaha, a Honolulu residential complex overlooking the Pacific Ocean, Land’s End Lookout in the Golden Gate National Recreation area, Barnacles, a community gathering space on the Embarcadero, restoration of the Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma, the first commercial winery in California, and the landscape for the Museum of Steel in Monterrey, Mexico, a repurposed foundry that now incorporates the largest green roof in Central America.

James Lord trained as both an architect and a landscape architect. Prior to opening Surfacedesign, he worked at the offices of Peter Walker and Partners, Martha Schwartz Partners, and Hargreaves Associates. Roderick Wyllie leads the office's residential, estate, and vineyard design efforts, integrating a passion for craft and vast knowledge of plants and material construction into all phases of the design process. Geoff di Girolamo directs the firm's large-scale urban design projects nationally and in Asia. Prior to joining Surfacedesign, he worked as an architect with SOM, Pei Cobb Freed, and Marta Fry Landscape Associates.

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dDAB COMMENTARY:

Not only is Surfacedesign based in San Francisco, each of the firm's principals — James Lord, Roderick Wyllie, and Geoff de Girolamo — has roots in California. Not surprisingly, much of the firm's portfolio is found in the Golden State, which ranges from private residential gardens to public parks and much in between. Yet flipping through their first monograph, a trio of landscapes well beyond the boundary of California stand out from the 25 projects. 

First is the first project in the book: First Flight at Auckland International Airport in New Zealand (first and second spreads below). Stone mounds referencing Maori stonefields flank the approach road to the airport, metaphorically describing the island nation's volcanic landscape though also practically addressing on-site soils remediation and stormwater treatment. 

The second project is a little closer to the firm's California home: IBM Plaza in Honolulu, Hawaii. The courtyard serves IBM Victoria Ward tower, designed by Russian architect Vladimir Ossipoff in 1964 and renovated five years ago. Surfacedesign translated the undulating lines of the screen facade into a large elevated fountain that defines one edge of the courtyard. The same lines continue along the paving of the courtyard, articulated with grass and volcanic stone that, like Auckland Airport, echoes the geology of the place. 

The third project is in Monterrey, Mexico: Museum of Steel (Museo del Acero Horno 3). The museum is housed in a decommissioned blast furnace and therefore is reminiscent of Richard Haag's Gas Works Park in Seattle. In Monterrey, Surfacedesign reused some old steel plates in a stepped canal, incorporated on-site stormwater treatment, and capped the existing buildings with green roofs (last spread) that visitors can see up close from a viewing deck.

Most of the remaining 22 projects in Material Landscapes are in California, though all of them exhibit these qualities of the book's subtitle. Their landscapes are exceptional because of the way they articulate materials — from plants, water, and trees to concrete, stone, and steel — to create spaces that look inviting and sensuous. With page after page of full-bleed color photographs, broken up occasionally by consistently rendered plans, it's hard to deny the high quality of Surfacedesign's landscapes. 

Accompanying the 25 projects are a preface by Alan Maskin of Olson Kundig, who has worked with Surfacedesign on a half-dozen projects; a conversation between Lord, Wyllie, and Harvard GSD's Anita Berrizbeitia; and a studio conversation, in which the three partners are joined by some of their colleagues. These texts give background on the firm and express its ideals, all of them on display in the 3 + 22 projects.

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