Tour an Architectural Gem

Jean Roth Driscoll’s hilltop home boasts beautiful views of Los Angeles

 
September 2021. By Cassy Aoyagi: Friend and Theodore Payne Foundation board member Gary Breaux lives in a beautiful South Pasadena midcentury modern home designed by Jean Roth Driscoll. It’s perch on top of a hill gives it spectacular views – and a few vulnerabilities we wanted to address in designing the spaces that surround this gem.
 

 
Landscape architect Eric Crow used a wide variety of fire-defensive strategies in the design… yet most notice only the beauty!
 

 
The fire-defensive design strategies you’ll see include:

  • Preserving and adding tree canopy to “catch” flying embers
  • Creating clear, defensible space near the home
  • Blocking wind-driven leaves and litter from collecting near structures
  • Mixing foliage and hardscape materials to “sink” embers
  • Planting 100 percent native foliage supported by smart irrigation
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    Gary, Eric and I also address how the garden lives year round. We hope you enjoy the conversation!
     
     

    More Information

  • Catch Fire with Trees
  • Fight fire with Maintenance
  • 10 Steps for Fire Defense
  • Increase Green Infrastructure

    Nature’s Critical Role in Achieving Green Building Goals

    Date: Thursday, September 23, 2021

    Time: 11:15- 12:45 am (Full Schedule)

    Location: Greenbuild 2021 Conference and Expo, San Diego and Online

    Registration: Required for Members and Non-Members Available Now
     
     
    Tree canopy, birdsong, fragrant blooms… nature profoundly impacts our wellbeing. In fact, a “dose” of nature can be as effective as medication for treating PTSD and ADHD. It can speed physical healing after surgery and inspire greater health-promoting movement. It also supports our social wellbeing, providing space facilitates positive interaction and levels inequities. Yet, cities across the globe have neglected green infrastructure for decades. So has the green building community.
     

     
    This panel will analyze the green building community’s relationship to green infrastructure, assess our responsibility to expand it, and differentiate the forms of green infrastructure that make greatest possible impact. It will explain both the costs of action and inaction. We will explain and explore:

    1. What is nature’s impact on human (mental, physical and social) health?
    2. Why has our green infrastructure declined?
    3. Where can green infrastructure best support health? How?
    4. When in the planning-to-building process should green infrastructure be considered?
    5. Which landscaping choices produce the greatest positive and negative health impacts?
    6. How does green infrastructure impact LEED certification?
    7. What are the costs of expanding green infrastructure? Of the status quo?

    We hope you’ll take part in the discussion!
     

    Virtual Native Tour Fall Update

    Date: Wednesday, October 6, 2021

    Time: 6:00-8:30 pm

    Location: Online

    Tickets: Watch Now!

     
    This innovative visit back to the 2021 Native Plant Garden Tour gardens showcases their summer aesthetic and a plethora of opinions about spiders, dormancy, and fall maintenance in LA’s most authentic gardens.
     

     
    See exceptional Los Angeles native gardens perform through the late summer to early fall dormancy period. You’ll see the same Native Plant Garden Tour spaces toured in spring, and hear from the same homeowners, for a season-by-season comparison.

    This is the final installment of the Theodore Payne Foundation‘s innovative 2021 Native Plant Garden Tour.
     

     
    Join us to tour a beautiful Tujunga foothill garden, designed by Eric Crow. The owner adores the space for its perpetual tweeting and appreciates its ever-evolving beauty and fire-savvy qualities. In the fall event, we hope you’ll notice that when we design for dormancy, gardens remain lush, leafy and interesting year-round.
     
    Just in case you missed it, here is the spring event. We hope this tour delights you as it did us!