by Rich Risner, Grounded Landscape Architecture
A while back, Grounded Landscape Architecture took on a pro bono role for Harbaugh Seaside Trails in Solana Beach. Principal Rich Risner provided Landscape Architecture Plans for the City of Solana Beach and the California Coastal Commission. For their efforts, Grounded won a 2020 Excellence in Design Honor Award from ASLA-San Diego in the Pro Bono category.
Grounded Landscape Architecture provided these services because of their strong belief that Landscape Architects are the “stewards of the land” and that we should give back to the community we live in. At the recent grand opening, Rich was thanked along with other volunteers who have worked so hard on this project.
Now open to the public, the Harbaugh Seaside Trails in Solana Beach sit on a 3.44-acre open-space area that has been dedicated to the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve in perpetuity. From a new deck, the site provides a scenic overview of the west basin of the San Elijo Lagoon, the Pacific Ocean and the Cardiff State Beach Living Shoreline.
Harbaugh Seaside Trails are on a site that was considered a “brown field,” previously being the location of an automobile maintenance building and gas service station. Once the station was abandoned in the late 60s the site became a neighborhood midnight-dumping ground for all kinds of trash and debris.
The site was purchased by a developer with high aspirations of building a multi-story high-rise hotel and timeshare building. The community fought the developer’s plans for many years until he finally gave up and sold the property to the non-profit org. Nature Collective (formally the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy). Nature Collective acquired the purchasing funds through generous donations from philanthropists and local community members.
Currently there are numerous San Elijo Lagoon projects happening that are addressing the need to adapt to the impacts of urban sprawl and climate change by providing habitat restoration with sustainable, environmentally resilient designs.
Believes Risner, “As a society we need to understand the vital importance of open-space protection and environmental-restoration projects that protect these sensitive habitats within this high-demand coastal region. This is important because these areas are constantly under attack from competing interests.”
Especially important, he believes, is the role of a Landscape Architect and what we can do to help inform the public, help protect habitat, provide long-range management solutions and help design these ecologically rich environments.
