Theory & Principles of Planning Part IV

The
ART AND SCIENCE OF
SITE PLANNING
and
LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTURE
6th Architectural Licensure Review College of Architecture University of Mindanao
SITE PLANNING
The art and science of arranging the uses of portions of land is site
planning. Site planners designate these uses in detail by selecting and
analyzing sites, forming land use plans, organizing vehicular and
pedestrian circulation, developing visual forms and material concepts,
readjusting existing landforms by design grading, providing proper
drainage, and finally developing the construction details necessary to
carry out the project.
SITE DESIGN
Entails the whole range of concerns relating to the development, or
redevelopment, of a piece of ground for some planned purposes.
Common purpose is the construction of a building on the ground of a
site; thus, building/site relations and interactions to direct physical
connections and sharing of the site space are experienced or
perceived.
1. Site Development. Concerns items on and below the
ground surface of a site, the buildings and its various
building utilities and services.
2. Concerns for Site Development:
 Division of Site Development
 The Micro-Site: Internal Concerns
 The Macro-Site: Extended Environment
 Building/Site Relations.
3. Fundamental concerns:
• Routes of access to building entry point
• Placement and orientation of building on site
• Building base and foundation development
• Underground connection to services/utilities.
• Basic Functional relations
– General Character of the site
• Neighborhood environment
• Function of the site unto itself.
 Site Conditions
1. Existing Site Conditions
2. Design Problem considerations
3. Physical Site conditions
4. Site Survey. Maps on boundaries, access road location and transportation
networks, utilities easement, and major site features.
5. Helpful Maps. Geologic Map, Zoning Map, Aerial Surveys, General Map
6. Site Development Plans
7. Site Plans
8. Grading Plans
9. Construction Plans
10. Helpful Data Sources: Surface Drainage, Existing Streets, Existing Utilities,
Adjacent Properties
11. General Information on:
-Ownership Legality/Access availability and usage
-Zoning Ordinance
-Weather and General Climatic Records
-Regional Demographic Studies
-General Community or Regional Development Plans
-Legal Constraints
-Ownership
-Usage Restrictions
-Building Codes/Local and National Building laws & Ordinances
THE ASPECTS OF SITE
PLANNING
1. Defining the site design problem. The problem considered is how to
get a building on the site and which site situations may present
constraints or difficulty.
2. Traffic. Management of considerable traffic for both the pedestrian
and vehicles. People and cars must be moved on and off the
site and around the site for various purposes: entry, access roads,
pedestrian routes, and vehicular system routes.
3. PARKING. A requirement for all building sites. It may be a surface
parking on a paved area or a structure parking within the building or in
a separate building on site.
4. THE VISIBLE SITE. Site Planning generally deals with the visible
portion of the site as to what is seen walked on and participated or
used by the users of the site and the buildings on it. It shall be
considered from these views:
a. All possible points: on the site, off the site, inside and outside the
building, from the neighboring buildings, etc.
b. At night, during daylight, with site lighting turned on or off.
c. At different times of the year, different seasons affect landscape
and environment of the site.
d. By persons on vehicles passing through or just walking by.
 BUILDING/SITE
RELATIONS
Siting the building establishes the specific geometric, spatial relationship
between a building and its site. Consisting of :
HORIZONTAL POSITIONING.
Establishes the plan location of the building on the site considering the
following factors:
1. Setbacks
2. Protection of easements
3. Site space for driveways, walks, underground utilities
4. Protection of views or privacy
5. Construction allowances
6. Topography
7. The shape of the building (building ground level perimeter
profile) is usually strongly related to the site form, especially for
tight sites where the building covers a major portion of the site
surface. The building shape is both restricted by the site form
and strongly limits the potential for developing other site areas.
 BUILDING/SITE RELATIONS
VERTICAL POSITIONING
1. Relation to any existing buildings or other features
2. Relation to existing site features: grades, ground water
levels, soil conditions.
3. Relation to existing underground utilities.
4. Vertical locations of both the edges and buildings will
also establish some conditions for other site elements-
most notably sidewalks, driveways, terraces, breezeways
or other elements involving traffic of people or vehicles.

Site drainage, as it affects both the site and the building, will be strongly
defined. It is best to direct surface drainage away from the building edges,
especially when there are basement spaces. Controlled drainage on a tight
site or one with problem site edges may present a different situation, and
building edges may actually be used as a site drainage collection points
that feed into a sewer system.
 BUILDING/SITE RELATIONS
ACCESS.
The access path typically begins with the concern for access on to the site,
which is usually constrained by adjacent properties or streets for 2 forms of
traffic – pedestrian and vehicular. Access also considers the provision of
accessibility for persons with limited abilities

SERVICES. Consist of:

1. Water supply
2. Sewers
3. Electrical power
4. Gas
5. Telephone lines
6. Cable TV
7. General deliver-mail and courier services
8. Trash collection
9. Firefighting
10. Building/Site Spatial Continuity
11. External viewed building as an object on the site
12. Seen from the inside the building
13. Entry and exit passage
 Special Concerns For Sites
1. Lighting. Electrically Powered Outdoor Lighting May Serve
Various Purposes. Sometimes Several Different Purposes Can Be
Fulfilled With the Use of a Single Fixture. It Is Important to
Understand the Different Kinds of Illumination Needs in Order to
Accurately Judge the Value and Appropriateness of the Many
Different Lighting Systems.
2. Height of Fixtures. Light Intensity Decreases Rapidly As Distance
From the Source Increases; Thus, the Higher the Fixture, the
Less Illumination Will Deliver at Ground Level. However, the
Higher the Source, the Wider the Areas It Will Affect.
3. Spacing of Fixtures. Widely Spaced Fixtures Will Result in Local
Bright Spots With a Falloff of Illumination Between Them; Closely
Spaced Fixtures Can Produce a Relatively Uniform Illumination.
A. Form of Fixtures and Type of Lighting Elements
B. Illumination of the Building Exterior
C. Illumination of Traffic Paths
D. Security Lighting
E. Accent Illumination and Decorative Lighting
 Special Concerns For Sites
4. Acoustics. Controlling sound on site is somewhat limited, compared to
situations inside the building. Although not much can be done to modify or
control this situation, site development offers some possible solutions for
sound control as:
a. Consider the location of sound generating facilities on site (mechanical
rooms)
b. Utilize ground forms (hills, etc)
c. High site walls
d. Tall dense plantings
5. Communication and signage. Communication functions are an aspect of site
development. All entrances and exits should have signage for proper
communications. It is a good design exercise to walk through a proposed site
to see how much communication is achieved without recourse to signs. If this
form of communication is optimal, the signs will work all the better, and will not
fight with the visual signals on the site.
6. Security. A lot is enclosed through various means of enclosure to present a
sense and actually secure the activities and the users. Nowadays, with the
growing threat of terrorism and insurgency globally, security had been a major
system in site development. Electronic gadgets, equipments are being
developed to fill the gap in the market demand in this area. More and more
users require a security system not just for their homes but in all the places,
they are using.
 LAND ANALYSIS

Topography

Topography describes the surface features of land. A topographic

map shows the slope and contour of the land as well as other natural and
artificial features. It is developed from a topographic survey by a land
surveyor and includes:
 Property boundaries
 Existing buildings
 Utility poles
 Roads
 Manufactured features
 Trees natural features: rock outcroppings & heavy vegetation

Contour lines on a map are a graphic way to show the elevations of the
land in a plan view and are used to determine the suitability of the land for
various uses.
Contour intervals is the vertical distance between contour lines
 LAND ANALYSIS
• SLOPE ANALYSIS CATEGORIES:

Slope 0%-4% Usable for all types of intense activities and are easy
to build on.
Slope 4%-10% Suitable for informal movement and outdoor
activity and can also be but without much difficulty.
Slopes over 10%-25% Difficult to climb or use for outdoor
activity and more difficult and expensive to build on.
Slopes over 25% Depending on the conditions of the soil, are
subject to erosion and become more expensive to build on.

Respecting the natural contours and slope of the land is

important from an ecological, aesthetic and ecological standpoint.
Ideally, the amount of earth cut away in grading operations should
equal the amount required to fill in other portions of the site.
 NATURAL FEATURES
1. View analysis may be required to determine the most
desirable ways to orient buildings, outdoor areas, and
approaches to the buildings. Undesirable views can be
minimized or blocked with landscaping or other
manufactured features.
2. Significant natural features such as rock outcroppings, cliffs,
caves, and bogs should be identified to determine whether
they must be avoided or can be used as positive design
features in the site design.
3. Subsurface conditions of groundwater and rock must be
known also. Sites with high water tables (about 1.80-2.40
meters below grade) can cause problems with excavations,
foundations, utility placement, and landscaping. The water
table is the level underground in which the soil is saturated
with water. Generally, the water follows the slope of the
grade above, but it may vary slightly. Boring logs will reveal
whether groundwater is present and how deep it is.
4. Sites with a preponderance of rocks near the surface can be
very expensive and difficult to develop. Blasting is usually
required, which can increase the site development costs
significantly (or may not be allowed by the city code
restrictions)
 DRAINAGE
Every site has some type of natural drainage pattern that must be taken
into account during design. In some cases the drainage may be
relatively minor, consisting only of the runoff from the site itself and a
small amount from adjacent sites. This type of drainage can be easily
diverted around roads, parking lots, and buildings with curbs, culverts,
and minor changes in the contours of the land. In other cases major
drainage paths such as gullies, dry gulches, or rivers may traverse the
site. These will have a significant influence on potential site
development because they must, in most cases, be maintained.
Buildings need to be built away from them or must bridge them so that
water flow is not restricted and potential damages are avoided. If
modifications to the contours are required, the changes must be done
in such a way that the contours of the adjacent properties are not
disturbed.
The development of the site may be so extensive that excessive runoff
is created due to roof areas, roads, and parking lots. All of these
increase the runoff coefficient, the fraction of total precipitation that is
not absorbed into the ground. If the runoff is greater than the capacity
of the natural or artificial drainage of the site, holding pools must be
constructed to temporarily collect the site runoff and release it at a
controlled rate.
 SOIL

• Soil is the pulverized upper layer of the earth,

formed by the erosion of rocks and plant remains
modified by living plants and organisms.
Generally, the visible layer is topsoil, a mixture or
mineral and organic material. The thickness of
topsoil may range from just a few inches to a foot
or more. Below this is a layer mostly mineral
material, which is above a layer of the fractured
and weathered parent material of the soil above.
Below all these layers is solid bedrock. Soil is
classified according to grain size and as either
organic or inorganic
 GRAIN SIZE CLASSIFICATION and
CHARACTERISTICS
• Gravel particles over 2 millimeters in diameter
• Sands particles from 0.05 to 2 millimeters in diameter, the
finest grains visible to the eye.
• Gravels and sands are excellent for construction loads and
drainage and for sewage drain fields, but they are
unsuitable for landscaping.
• Silt particles from 0.002 to 0.05 millimeters in diameters,
the grains are invisible but can be felt as smooth
• Silt is stable when dry or damp but unstable when wet. It
swells and heaves when frozen and compresses under
load. Generally building foundations and road bases must
extend below it or must be elastic enough to avoid damage.
Some non-plastic silts are usable for lighter loads.
 GRAIN SIZE CLASSIFICATION and
CHARACTERISTICS

• Clay particles under 0.002 millimeters in diameter, smooth

and floury when dry, plastic and sticky when wet.

• Clay expands when wet AND IS SUBJECT TO SLIPPAGE. It

is poor for foundations and unless it can be kept dry, It is
also poor for landscaping and unsuitable for sewage drain
fields or other types of drainage.

• Peat and other organic materials are excellent for

landscaping but unsuitable for building foundations or road
bases. Usually, these soils must be removed from the site
and replaced with sands and gravels for foundations and
roads.
TRANSPORTATION and UTILITY INFLUENCES
1. Roads provide a primary means of access to a site. Their availability and
capacity may be prime determinants in whether and how a parcel of land can
be developed. Basic Categories of Roads:
a Local Streets have the lowest capacity and provide direct access to
building sites. They may be in the form of continuous grid or curvilinear
systems or may be cul-de-sacs or loops.
b Collector Streets connect local streets and arterial streets. They have a
higher capacity than local streets but are not usually intended for
through traffic. Intersections of collector and local roads may be
controlled by stop signs, whereas intersections with arterial streets will
be controlled with stop lights.
c Arterial Streets are intended as major, continuous circulation routes that
carry large amounts of traffic on two or three lanes. They usually
connect expressways. Parking on the street is typically not allowed and
direct access from arterial streets to building sites should be avoided.
d Expressways are limited access roads designed to move large volumes
of traffic between, through and around population centers. Intersections
are made by various type of ramp systems, and pedestrian access is not
allowed. Expressways have a major influence on the land due to the
space they require and their noise and visual impact.
 TRANSPORTATION and UTILITY
INFLUENCES

2. Public Transit
The availability and location of public transit lines can influence site
design. A site analysis should include a determination of the types of
public access available (whether bus, subway, rail line or taxi stop) and
the location relative to the site. Building entrances and major site
features should be located conveniently to the public transit. In large
cities, site development may have to include provisions for public
access to subway and rail lines.
3. Service Access
Service to a site includes provisions for truck loading, moving vans,
and daily delivery services. Ideally service access should be separated
from automobile and pedestrian access to a site and a building. Space
for large-truck turning
4. Utility Availability
5. Local Government Services
I. Introduction
Landscape design is a complex process that combines the practical with the artful
in a unified, functional composition.

The difference between the Landscape Architect and Landscape Designer

1. Landscape Architect
– an architect of the landscape, bringing together the natural balance
between the needs of people and ecology
– they consider the wise land use and aesthetics in their work
– they have the ability to create designs for everything from small
intimate gardens to new cities and parks of varying sizes
– they understand the interrelationships of people and their
surroundings and enables them to solve the problems of land
planning
2. Landscape Designer
– employed by landscape nurseries to design the work that the firm
builds
– familiar with the basic design principles, plant cultural requirements
and landscape construction methods
– projects are usually residential or small commercial jobs and consist
primarily of planting design
– they have a flair for design who has an ornamental horticultural
background
I. Introduction
Fields of Specialization in Landscape Architecture
1. Community and Multifamily Housing Development
New Towns, Planned Housing Communities, Condominium, Apartment
Complexes, Site Selection, Environmental Assessment, Rezoning, Code
Compliance, Site Planning
2. Parks and Outdoor Recreation Facilities
Mountain and Seaside Resorts, Golf Courses, Theme Parks, Tennis Centers,
Water Parks, Family Fun Centers, Outdoor Amphitheaters, Ski Areas
3. Commercial and Industrial Development
Shopping Centers, Malls, Office Complex, Mixed-use commercial projects,
Rooftop Plazas, Urban Plazas, Public Transportation Facilities, Airport environs,
Industrial Parks, Corporate Headquarters, Other Corporate Facilities
4. Planning and Analysis Projects
Scientific, Research and Feasibility Component, Establish criteria, provide
vision and set goals for future design and development, Land Planning for
residential communities, large-scale urban mixed-use development and
campus planning, Setting criteria and goals for the wise and sustainable use of
natural and cultural resources
5. Institutional Projects
Foundations, Associations, Church Organizations, Private Social Agencies,
Youth Organizations, Museums, Zoos, Private Universities
I. Introduction
6. Single-family Residential and Garden Design Projects
7. Land and Water Reclamation and Conservation Projects
Reclamation of Disturbed Landscape, Conservation of Open
Spaces, Marsh and riparian , landscapes, Beachfronts and dunes,
Mines and Landfill Operations, Logging and Agricultural
landscape, Manage the Team of ecologists, botanists, wildlife
biologists, fisheries experts, archeologists, others with expertise
in natural and cultural resources work
8. Interior Landscape Architecture
Deal with climate controlled spaces, natural or artificial light
conditions for plants and maintenance issues, Atriums, Lobbies,
Shopping malls, Airports, Conservatories, Indoor Walkways
9. Historic Preservation and Restoration Projects
Residential Gardens, Parks, Scenic Routes, Explorers Routes,
Settlers Routes, Parkways, Arboretums, Zoos, Cemeteries,
Residential Areas, Towns, Villages, Industrial Sites, College,
Campuses, Waterfronts, Other Culturally Shaped Landscape,
Historic Inventories and surveys, preservation, rehabilitation,
restoration and reconstruction
10. Landscape Art and Earth Sculpture
II. Design Analysis

 It consists of both a site analysis and an analysis of people’s

needs.
 It identifies problems to be solved during the landscape
designing process
 Identifying all landscaping problems is the first step toward
their solution

1. Site Analysis
- Includes measurement of lot dimensions, location of the
building on the lot, easements setbacks, other legal
requirements, measurement and recording of building
features and utilities, direction of prevailing wind, site
terrain, locate and assess the value of natural features, note
all good off property views as well as bad property features,
note to screen noise and other nuisances, existing
macroclimate and microclimate conditions, check soil depth,
rock content for analysis, etc.
II. Design Analysis

2. Analysis of People’s Needs for Residential

– People’s needs can be varied as the people
themselves. Good designer should stimulate their thoughts
– A comprehensive analysis of people’s needs includes,
whenever possible, their plans for the future as well as the
present:
• Ages, sex, hobbies, personal plant preferences, time spent
in the maintenance, whether permanent or interim,
driveways, car requirements, patios or decks needed,
suitability of walks and paths, swimming pool or other
water features, activity areas, service area requirements,
children’s play area, storage needs, any other special
accessories desired in the landscape, etc.
III. Areas and Circulation
1. Defining Areas in the Landscape
- Circulation between areas should be of prime importance when
locations for those areas are determined
- Proportions should be a factor at all times as general
areas are designated. Areas should be more wide than deep
for the best appearance
2. Circulation
- Circulation elements should be provided in the landscape
for both motor and pedestrian traffic
- Distinguish primary walks (for more than one person) and
secondary walks (for one person, only if necessary)
- Driveways should be designed for easy use, regardless of
car size, but generally should be inconspicuous as possible
3. Decks and Patios
- Should be designed for the normal, daily amount of
traffic, with overload capability built into surroundings areas
- Choices between decks and patios, the size of these
elements, and their importance evolve from the design-
analysis information
IV. Land Forms
Nature has blessed us with a terrain that sheds excess water and
adds much interest to the landscape of the country. It is the designers
duty to work within the boundaries of nature when altering the land
forms in any way.
1. Studying Land Forms
a. Drainage. The Rules of Drainage is simple. Water
runs downhill, and the steeper the hill, the faster the
pace of the drainage. In a depressed area, water will
stand, causing natural swamps and lakes. River and
streams occur at the lowest points of surrounding
terrain, where decreasing relative heights, in coordination with
the earth’s gravitational pull, cause surface to flow.
When people design drainage patterns, they create hills
and valleys that will function in harmony with surrounding
natural patterns. By using the minimum slope to drain a steep
site, spreading the drainage over a wide base, and protecting
the surfaces of the drainage areas as well, the designer
minimizes the erosion effects of drainage.
IV. Land Forms
b. Surveying
The determination of the relative levels of a land mass for the
purpose of making a topographical map is accomplished by taking a
survey.
c. Mapping Survey Results
A topographical map results from interpolating all whole-numbered
contour lines located within the grid system of a survey, then connecting
lines between all contour points of equal number. Contour interpolation is
a mathematical process for locating a whole-numbered contoured line that
falls between two sightings on a grid-system survey

2. Alteration of Land Forms

Grading is a process by which the land forms are molded to the
physical configuration necessary for a given set of circumstances.
Cut and Fills.
Cut is the removal of a prescribed depth of soil within the space
between an existing and proposed contour lines.
Fill is the addition of a prescribed amount of soil over the existing
contour in the space between existing and proposed contours.

The manipulation of contours for landscape purposes is always dependent

on the rules of topography, for example, water follows the steepest route,
flowing at right angles to contour lines; and so forth.
IV. Land Forms
• Alteration of land forms results in designing the following
- Terraces – provides a more level space or series of spaces. It can be built
with or without retaining walls. If used with retaining walls, it allows the maximum
useful space because of the vertical structure of the walls
- Retaining walls – used to retain the soil, thus allowing the maximum usable
space between changes in level, while at the same time controlling the surface-
water drainage
- solid walls, dry rock walls, dry block retaining walls, railroad-tie or
landscape-timber walls, post walls, wooden retaining walls, bio-engineering
- Criteria in Choosing the Type of Retaining Wall
a. Height and strength requirements
b. Surface drainage behind the walls
c. Materials used in other features on the property
d. Shape of the retaining wall
e. Availability of materials
f. Cost
- Berms or mounds – provides screening, wind protection, and a higher
platform from which to start young trees and shrubs must look natural, not
contrived, and must be in keeping with terrain features found around the property
- Subsurface drainage – used when surface drainage system can not solve a
problem. It is used with area drains and catch basins to collect and filter the water
entering the drainage system
V. Walls and Ceiling
The walls, ceiling and floor are the dimensions of the outdoor
“room.” A ceiling (the sky) and the floor (the ground) are always
present, though they might require modification. The walls are
created as part of the landscape designThe structure of any one of
the three may affect the appearance and/or function of the other
two
1. Walls – the most satisfactory landscape walls often combine
both structural and planting materials
- Screening – requires walls of certain sizes and densities
- undesirable views
- the view into the landscape from the outside area
- dust and other pollutants
- noise
- Framing good off-property views
- Protecting and insulating from the wind
- Filtering breezes into the property
- Providing enclosure – either absolute (impenetrable) or
implied
V. Walls and Ceiling

• Ceiling – may be provided by structural roofs, awning,

arbors, or the like, or by shade and ornamental trees
- Shade from the hot summer sun – it will depend
on accurate recognition of the time of day when the
shade is necessary, the path of the sun over the
property, and the angle at which the sun penetrates the
area during the time that the shade is needed.
Recognition of the density of the shade desired is
necessary
- Protection from the elements (rain, snow, etc.)
- Screening from the dust and other pollutants
 Principles of Planting Design
Physical Properties of Plants
1. Form
- Plant forms tend to reflect the natural terrain of the areas to which they are native.
Good design calls for the use of these predominant forms to blend with the natural
surroundings
- Typical tree forms are oval, columnar, round, pyramidal, weeping, conical, irregular,
vase, fustigate
- Typical shrub forms are horizontal-spreading, weeping, round, leggy, upright vase,
arching-spreading, mounded, erect, prostrate, trailing, mat-like, horizontal-creeping,
narrow pyramidal, conical
2. Texture
- ranges from fine through coarse. It is created by the stems, leaves, bark and buds and
can be seen and felt
3. Color
- it results from light penetration, absorption and reflection. The more light rays are
reflected, the brighter the color; the more absorbed, the darker the color will be.
- Hues are the result of light rays of variable lengths being reflected in mixtures
 Unity in Design
The principle of composition must apply from typical viewing points as
well as when moving through the landscape

1Simplicity – breeds elegance. Simple 1.Sequence – can be created by a

lines forms and functional designs progression of form, texture or
are always more interesting than color. It is the rhythm of the
complex and hard-to-digest-designs landscape, causing the eye to
Variety – used to control repetition and progress to a point of emphasis
spark the viewers interest, to prevent then move away gradually to the
monotony rest on another point of emphasis
Emphasis – or a focal point. It may be
Scale – by controlling the
created by means of an accent plant
proportionate scale of landscaping
serving as an accent plant, a hard
element or a landscape
features, the designer evokes
embellishment emotion. It is usually desirable to
Balance – either symmetrical or make people comfortable and
asymmetrical. It must exist not only relaxed, that is why landscaping
from side to side, butr also from is done on a normal scale to
foreground to background of the view which people relate easily
 Plantings & Architecture
Buildings are not natural elements, so landscaping help is required to
tie the buildings to the land
1. Elevations of Architecture –
In elevational view, the 1. Colors and Architecture –
designer can determine the complementary colors in subtle
dominant lines in the combinations are usually better
architecture as well as its than stark contrasts that
structural mass command too much attention
Balancing Structural and Plant Visual Interest: Architecture or
Masses - Reversing structural Plantings – A correlation exists
masses in planting units helps between the amount of visual
to balance and strengthen the interest in the building
building-landscape relationship architecture and the amount
Enframement Trees – help tuck required of the landscaping.
the building into the landscape. The more visual weight
They must be placed with all contained in architecture, the
viewing angles in mind. The
less visual weight is required of
enframement trees must be
the landscaping, and vice
proportionate to the size of the
versa.
Points – may be created at an entryway by a sequence of color or texture or
building
Focal
both. Embellishments may be used for accent, or ground pattern lines may direct
attention appropriately
 MATCHING PLANT MATERIALS TO
DESIGN CRITERIA
1. Specifications for Plant Selection – Plant selection should always be based on
specifications built during the design process and without consideration of personal prejudices
a. Climatic Adaptability and Hardiness
b. Soil Requirements
c. Sun or Shade Requirements
d. Size and Form
e. Texture
f. Color of Foliage
g. Growth and Development Rate
h. Insect and Disease Susceptibility
i. Flower and Fruit Production
j. Commercial Availability and Price
k. Special Use Considerations
l. Nomenclature

2. Plant Sizes at Purchase

3. Plant Conditions at Purchase
 GROUND COVERS
1. Ground Patterns
c. Nonliving Groundcovers
a. Straight-line Patterns
b. Curved-lines patterns Advantages: Disadvantages:
c. Arc-and-tangent lines - Immediate - Excessive
2. Flooring results mobility
- Low - Missile effect
a. Lawn Grasses
maintenance - Color variety
b. Living Groundcovers - Will withstand - Drainage
traffic problems
Advantages: - Reasonable
-Natural color Disadvantage cost
and form s: - d. Bare
Color Soil under
variety
Air-cleaning Establishment - Textural variety
qualities Plantings
- Heat time
Degree of Advantages: Disadvantages:
absorption - Good growing - Erosion
- Stability of root Maintenance
- Wildlife habitat medium susceptibility
system
-Contrast in - Accessibility - Color contrast - Higher
heights - Veining - Low cost maintenance Mud
- Catches and qualities - Availability for
holds debris rowing other plants
-Provides a
wildlife habitat
 EMBELLISHMENTS
Serve the landscape as desserts serve to complete a good meal. Both enhance the
flavor. To a large extent, embellishments provide the individuality in each landscape

1. Flowers
- Considered embellishments, although short-seasoned, they are visually demanding that
they must be used with extreme care so that they do not override other landscape
features
- It should never be used where intense attention is unwarranted
- Should always be planted in color masses of nicely contrasting or complementary
colors. However, confusion is created by indiscriminate planting of separate plants of
individual colors
2. Nonessential Construction Features
- Includes ornamental walls, raised planters, seats and benches, ornamental fences
and flower boxes can contribute additional colors, textures, and forms to the landscape
3. Sculpture and Statuary
- Extreme care must be taken when using these to keep them in good
proportion to surrounding elements
4. Water Features
- - It provides additional sights and sounds in the landscape, as well as helping to alter
the environment
- - Provision must be made for an electrical supply and for lights and pumps
 EMBELLISHMENTS
5. Others
- Collected pieces of art that would be good
proportion to elements of the indoor rooms are often quite
disproportionate in the outdoor rooms
- The sounds of running water, birds, and musical
chimes or bells are usually welcomed as
background in the landscape
- Lighting is used functionally in the landscape to
illuminate circulation routes anfd to provide security to
the area
- Dramatic garden lighting can highlight garden features
while making the landscape more usable at night
- Lights should always be placed above or below eye
level
- Dark surfaces require brighter illumination than
light colored surfaces but do allow greater contrast
- Special seasonal effect can be created by dramatic
lighting of the landscape
MFC ARCHITECTS and PLANNERS
All Rights Reserved 2004