Improving America’s Corporate Landscapes Through Thoughtful Landscape Architecture and Land Planning
Open Access
- Author:
- Stewart, Grace
- Area of Honors:
- Landscape Architecture
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Landscape Architecture
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Hong Wu, Thesis Supervisor
Larry James Gorenflo, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- landscape architecture
corporate campus
business park
multi-use landscape
urban sprawl
stormwater runoff
pollinator health
third-spaces - Abstract:
- Across the United States, land owned by corporations and business parks are creating voids in the American landscape as these areas dominate land in and around communities. Rapid development and urban sprawl combined with the American automobile-centric view of urban planning and the need for convenience results in the loss of habitat and biodiversity as environmentally rich landscapes are turned into parking lots and turfgrass monocultures to appease the need for corporate centers and business parks. This phenomenon fragments existing landscapes and limits natural processes such as pollination and migration to smaller and smaller areas. Additionally, these areas often border streams and waterways, riparian areas, forest edges, and create unnecessary and unproductive ecotones. Oftentimes, this model of development and expansion results in single-use landscapes. People travel in their automobiles from their homes to their offices and vice versa, then repeat the cycle daily. There is nothing that encourages people to stay at these corporate parks and they typically do not serve the surrounding communities that they are interrupting as there is no other available use for them, despite them usually sitting on considerable amounts of land. This continuing simplification of society and the creation of unproductive voids in the American landscape could begin to be remedied if more corporations and business parks that sit on considerable acreage begin to make a conscious effort to improve their environmental impact. By repurposing these corporate landscapes to provide opportunities for pollination, migration, and recreational use through planting design and revised planning efforts, the existing network of business parks could be transformed into a landscape with more benefits for both humans and with higher environmental value. This thesis explores the causes that have contributed to the modern American Corporate Landscape we recognize today by understanding the history of these landscapes and the factors that have led to an excess of single-use landscapes. Following the research-based portion and identification of current issues, a proposed redesign of the Giant Foods Corporate Campus in Carlisle, Pennsylvania suggests how a typical corporate landscape can be re-imagined to provide more environmental benefits, improve corporate work culture, and support the surrounding community through a variety of approaches and strategies to turn corporate campuses and business parks into productive, multi-use landscapes.