Sunnyvale, CA - Spiegel Aihara Workshop (SAW) has designed the landscape for a new 75-unit, mixed-income multifamily housing development in Sunnyvale, CA, in the heart of Silicon Valley. Terraced gardens tie the development together, connecting the public streetscape to the private interior courtyards, all the way to the roof deck with views to Kings Mountain and the foothills beyond. Robust community spaces are created at all levels, with stormwater treatment planters seamlessly integrated into the cascading design. The project is playfully referred to as “Gardens Over Denny’s”, in reference to the beloved Denny’s restaurant (an American chain diner that evokes a certain nostalgia) that had long existed on the site, and through community endorsement, returned to become the development’s anchor tenant.

Layered, multivalent views characterize SAW’s approach to the landscape. At the Courtyard level, which includes firepit lounges and a community grill and dining table, carefully detailed metal edges delineate alternating bands of varying soil depths on the podium courtyard, which allow for both intensive and extensive plantings of varying heights and textures - critical for providing privacy for different group gatherings and for the individual units along the perimeter.
Shade structures with staggered vertical supports also contribute to the layered visual effect, notU nlike a painting, in which one might observe a rich composition of disparate, multi-directional elements in the foreground, middle ground, and background - including moving passers-by.

At the street level, the design includes a variety of landscape types to stitch the new development into its urban fabric. On the eastern side of the property along South Mathilda Avenue, a long stormwater planter with mixed native plantings and a gracious seat wall provides seating for residents awaiting public transportation, while on the northern edge of the building, tree ferns rise above mixed shade plantings to screen the apartment lobby and offices from the downtown traffic. At this northeast corner, a plaza with sculptural benches, decorative paving and palm trees connects the property to a commercial downtown corridor. On the western edge, the 5-story building scales down to 2-story townhouses with playful layerings of grasses, colorful shrubs and dwarf strawberry trees with its red, exfoliating bark providing a welcoming threshold to meet the adjacent residential neighborhood. At the 5th floor, a roof deck provides a sunny retreat with views to Kings Mountain and beyond, where tree lines blur together across boundaries, blending property lines through a continuous canopy.

The large stairway leading up to the courtyard level from the residential zone is flanked by wide garden terraces staggered with gracefully arching redbud trees, softening the confluence of stormwater infrastructure necessary to treat the water flowing from the multiple building roofs and courtyard pavements.. SAW partner Megumi Aihara explains, “This development is in the heart of Silicon Valley, in what was a formerly sleepy, low neighborhood, adjacent to vast commercial lots. We were trying to use the landscape to create connections within and between communities, with each streetscape reaching out to the neighborhood in a different way. Even the elevated courtyard garden, a private space, remains connected to the street level through a cascade of trees that engages new residents with the existing homes. We felt this landscape helped give the development an identity.”

Team: 
Architect: Studio T-SQ, Inc
Landscape Architect: SAW (Sharon Ling, Avery Sell, Megumi Aihara)
Client: Bay West Development / Lane Partners
Civil Engineer: BKF Engineers
Structural Engineer: Hohbach-Lewin, Inc
General Contractor: Johnston Moyer, Inc
Photo credits: Courtesy of SAW