Architecture studio
Foster + Partners
has won planning permission to redevelop a triangular site in Beverly Hills,
Los Angeles
, with a botanical garden and a pair of
plant-covered
high-rises.
Approval was granted by Beverly Hills City Council last month to develop the 17.5-acre site next to the Beverly Hilton and Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills.
Two plant-covered high-rises will be at the centre of the One Beverly Hills development
Foster + Partners
has designed the masterplan for the
One Beverly Hills
development and
Gensler
will serve as executive architect. Alagem Capital Group and
Cain International
are the developers for the project.
The site, which sits on the triangle of land between Wilshire Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, will include a pair of condominium towers that will become the tallest buildings in
Beverly Hills
.
The 32-storey Santa Monica Residences Tower will be 410 feet (125 metres) high, while the 28-storey Garden Residences will be 369 feet (112 metres) tall.
Three new buildings will surround planted gardens
The plant-covered residential blocks will be built alongside a 10-storey building housing a 42-room hotel and 37 condominiums that will be offered under a shared home ownership scheme.
The Beverly Hilton, an iconic three-armed 1950s hotel designed by Welton Becket that hosts the annual Golden Globes awards, will also be upgraded with a new arrival drive and lobby area along with upgrades to the ballroom.
The hotel's swimming pool will be restyled and 36 new poolside cabana rooms added. A new conference centre will also be built.
The Botanic Gardens will feature shady walkways and water features
Set next to the Los Angeles Country Club, the landscaping will appear to continue up the side of the residential towers' planted balconies.
Los Angeles-based
RIOS
will design the landscape architecture for an eight-acre green space in the middle called the Botanic Gardens, half of which would be open to the public.
The garden will be planted with 40 trees and 250 plant species from around California, along with two miles of pathways wending past sculptures and water features.
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"In its beginnings, Beverly Hills was agricultural flat land – a green oasis that fed a growing urbanity," said Foster + Partners founder Norman Foster.
"A century later, we have seized on this inspiration to create an organic architecture that merges with landscape, a large part of which is publicly accessible, creating a shared resource for the city," he continued.
"The richness of Californian culture owes much to its diversity of influences, which comes together with the urgent need for sustainability – particularly conservation and recycling of water for the greenery."
Rainwater and recycled greywater will irrigate the development
Foster + Partners claimed that the 1.375 million-square-foot development "will be built from recycled, low embodied carbon and low toxicity materials".It said the development was "committed to being the benchmark for environmental sustainability, bringing together multiple technologies to aggressively lower emissions and energy consumption."
California is at
risk of drought and water shortages
but the landscaping for One Beverly Hills will use an irrigation system that will run off collected rainwater and recycled greywater.
Along with the water system, a geothermal system will use the soil's ground temperature to heat and cool the buildings and provide hot water. Onsite solar panels and a battery storage system will also be included in the development.
The project is part of a growing trend for
covering buildings in plants
. The trend was pioneered by Italian architect Stefano Boeri with his "
vertical forests
".
Foster + Partners recently unveiled
a plant-covered skyscraper in Greece
. Heatherwick Studio has completed
a skyscraper in Singapore
with balconies overflowing with plants, while Ingenhoven Architects created
Europe's largest green facade
for an office in Düsseldorf.
Recent projects by Foster + Partners in California include
a new Apple Store built in a historic Los Angeles movie theatre
and
plans for two new buildings in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighbourhood
.
The renderings are by DBox and courtesy of Foster + Partners.
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