Water World: Upgrade to save
Company: Pacific Landscape Management
Location: Beaverton, Ore.
Pacific Landscape Management (PLM) was tasked with providing the highest level of commercial landscape management and maintenance to a multinational corporate headquarters.
The client’s nearly 300-acre campus features varying landscape environments, including aquatic areas, native riparian areas and forested areas, highly manicured lawns and gardens, large sports fields and running trails.
Bob Grover, president of PLM, explains that the firm won the project after an intensive bidding process.
The irrigation component of this maintenance project is extensive, due to the fact that the client was spending nearly $1 million annually for irrigation water.
The PLM team undertook a variety of water conservation modifications and irrigation system improvements, such as replacing valves and mainlines and upgrading sprinklers to new or more efficient technology.
“There are countless components and upgrades (involved in) moving to more efficient water technology,” Grover says. “(The client) is invested in keeping the irrigation system upgraded over time.”
Two full-time irrigation specialists manage the HydroPoint Baseline sensor irrigation system. The efforts by PLM have helped reduce the client’s water use by 25 percent, saving nearly $250,000 in irrigation water costs.
The project earned Pacific Landscape Management a 2019 Gold Award from the National Association of Landscape Professionals’ Awards of Excellence program.
Photo: Aralani Photography
Partial view across 6-acre man-made lake. Plazas and sittings lawns around the lake are a hub of activity with the 12,000 employees that work and exercise on campus. Daily water porter services provide a clean and safe environment from the wild and local geese population that contaminate the lake. Trained dogs safely encourage geese to move out of the area.
Photo: Aralani Photography
The lake is a centerpiece of the campus. This view across the 6-acre man-made lake reveals a portion of the quarter mile of planted edge that is meticulously maintained. Ten skimmers and biological bacteria aqua spheres maintain a high quality of water that promotes a healthy aquatic environment.
Photo: Aralani Photography
The property has many landscape environments from aquatic, native riparian, and forested areas to highly manicured lawns, gardens, large sports fields and running trails. All environments need the proper maintenance techniques to achieve the highest level of plant health care as well as aesthetics and human safety. This image shows a pedestrian thoroughfare that requires trees to be high limbed and the shrubs and ground cover to be well manicured in order to create safe circulation flow.
Photo: Aralani Photography
The synthetic sports field is power swept monthly to maintain the highest quality of playing surface and safety, as well as being blown twice daily of leaf and other debris.
Photo: Aralani Photography
The property’s 440-meter running track is blown off daily of leaf and other debris. A professional running track surface within a woodland environment that is heavily planted with pines, firs, deciduous trees and fine turf reflects the complexity of maintaining the landscape of a world class campus.
Photo: Aralani Photography
A partial view of one of five running path bridges that overlooks one of many annual color displays. Annual color flowers are changed out twice a year with a third display of bulbs in the spring. The entries as well as the external landscaped berms that surround the campus need to be maintained to the highest standard to reflect the precision, innovation and craftsmanship of the corporation and its values.
Photo: Aralani Photography
This view of the inside half of a berm that surrounds the campus has been converted from a lawn to a shrub bed that contains hundreds of rose bushes. The planted density of trees and shrubs as shown is the standard within the campus grounds. The quality of maintenance shown in the image is the outcome of hundreds of combined daily hours that are required to achieve successful results throughout the campus.
Photo: Aralani Photography
An authentic Japanese garden within the grounds of the campus reflects the complexity of maintaining a diverse environment.
Photo: Aralani Photography
The building disappears in the landscape and becomes an afterthought because of the luscious foliage that surrounds it. This creates a space that feels removed from the hustle and bustle of the 12,000-person campus. Water quality is maintained to the highest level and this image reminds the viewer again of the intricacy of sustaining diverse environments within the campus.
Photo: Aralani Photography
Trees are pruned to achieve a lush allée dividing the turf sports field and pedestrian walk. Lights are added to the trees throughout the winter holidays.
Photo: Aralani Photography
Dense lawn areas within a woodland planting creates a calming environment for employees to relax and move through.
Photo: Aralani Photography
New and existing landscapes have a high-density planting to achieve an aesthetic that the client desires while preserving species separation.
Photo: Aralani Photography
Of the many iconic views of the campus, the water fountain entry is one of the most recognizable and appreciated.
Photo: Aralani Photography
One of the many environments maintained on campus is the blackwater treatment system that recycles waste water and filters it to be utilized as an irrigation resource.
Photo: Aralani Photography
A sophisticated cloud- based irrigation system ensures precise watering to the world class 4-acre sports field. The mowing crews work around the continual activity on the field throughout the week.
Photo: Aralani Photography
The artistic use of rock and architecture frame the newest entry into the campus, creating a clean and modern aesthetic that exemplifies the corporation’s brand.
Photo: Aralani Photography
Adding to the thousands of maintained trees on campus, a newly planted allée frames an entrance and compliments a small section of the over 2-mile wood chipped running trail. Annually, an average of 4,000 lineal feet of chipped path is removed and replaced to ensure the highest quality of running surface.
Photo: Pacific Landscape Management
System delivery improvements include replacing valves and mainlines and upgrading sprinklers to new or more efficient technology.
Photo: Pacific Landscape Management
PLM has replaced all 4000 spray heads with MP Rotators and lawn conversion.
About the Author: Abby Hart
Abby Hart is the former senior editor of Landscape Management. A native Clevelander, she spent 10 years in Chicago, where she was operations manager of a global hospitality consultancy. She also worked as managing editor of Illumine, a health and wellness magazine; and a marketing specialist for B2B publications. Abby has a degree in journalism from Boston University’s College of Communication.Subscribe to Landscape Management
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