Landscape-O-Rama: 4200 North Lamar

This office and commercial refurbishment was another collaboration between the architect Michael Hsu and the landscape firm D-Crain. I wrote previously about their combined work at the restaurant Sway in Austin on South First Street. This site has another restaurant anchor with Uchiko, a spinoff from Austin's acclaimed sushi establishment, Uchi. Both Sway and Uchi are stand-alone buildings, but Uchiko is integrated into a retail strip, which reminds me of my time living in Los Angeles when you never knew what fine dining restaurant you might find tucked away in a strip mall. This isn't quite as an obscure setting as the overall landscape for the entire property has been upgraded to be cohesive and more modern, and the other retail spaces are filled with upscale chains like Taco Deli and Houndstooth Coffee.

The overall landscape palette is strong on aggregate and accent planting. This project must have been before the City of Austin started cracking down on the use of aggregate mulch because of heat island concerns. You can now only get site permit approval with a limited percentage of gravel and aggregate mulch as they favor hardwood mulch. Most of the planters have gray basalt under the vegetation, although by Uchiko the material switches to a smaller, light colored crushed stone that is both under plants and used as the groundplane for an outdoor seating area. Plant wise, there's some clumping bamboo that divides parking spaces that is an uncommon choice for a parking lot in Austin. It has been hedged to about four or five feet tall instead of allowed to grow to full height. Similarly, there's a low hedge of olive at the side of the building that almost looks like boxwood. Tucked in this hedge is a hidden steel saucer with a Queen Victoria Agave all by its lonesome. Yuccas both tall and low fill a large planter by the ADA ramp and they are kept company by some cherry sage. There are a couple of medium sized Palo Verde trees that both are planted really close to the building and have steel crutches holding them up.

Wide View of Commercial Strip

Basalt Path Where Concrete Sidewalk Ends

Bamboo Hedge with Basalt Mulch

Olive Hedge

Hidden Queen Victoria Agave

Yuccas and Cherry Sage in Planter at Accessbility Ramps

Palo Verde Tree Planted at Foundation Edge

Steel Crutch for PaloVerde

There's really nice thought to the detail of the metal work in many parts of the project. The standard handrail/guardrail throughout is a gray painted flatbar with square post mounts that are inset to be flush with the concrete. I'm not quite sure if they just saw cut out to do these insets or had leave-outs when they poured the concrete. There are no visible bolts or anything for securing the posts, so maybe they are sleeved over some sort of dowel that was cast in the concrete or expoxied there later on? At Taco Deli they have umbrellas for tables, and the metal sleeves for these are integrated into the guardrail which is a great idea.

Typical Guardrail

Umbrella Holder

Although I've eaten at Uchiko before, I never noticed the outdoor waiting area near the main entry. It's enclosed by a custom steel pergola with perforated steel sides covered with what looks like crossvine (Bigonia capreolata). The posts for the pergola don't intersect with the concrete as cleanly here as those of the guardrail elsewhere, and the circular gap is filled with mortar. There's an aperture in the top of the pergola for another Palo Verde tree that's reaching for the sun. The planter area at the base of part of the pergola for the vines and some Candelilla (Euphorbia antisyphilitica) is raised steel that's angled back. A wood and steel bench runs the length of the waiting area and mirrors the look of the perforated part of the pergola.