Site Responsive Design & Concept Translation

Avila Beach, San Luis Obispo CA

November 2025

This redesign reimagines the ‘Stilted Garden’ as a restorative landscape that reconnects community, ecology, and the historic healing  identity of Sycamore Mineral Springs. A sunken, multiscale bioswale becomes the spine of the site capturing, infiltrating, and filtering stormwater while supporting plant communities that nourish pollinators and wildlife. Crossing this spine is  a shallow wading river fed by the mineral springs themselves, forming a sensory, interstitial waterway for grounding and seasonal learning. 

Scattered across the site are the abandoned 10–13 ft iron stilts, industrial remnants left from a halted construction project. Rather than discarding them, the design embraces these artifacts as opportunity to anchor the site’s character. Expanded equitable access, ADA routes, multilingual signage, shaded rest areas, and a trail-side pit stop ensure that seniors, youth, residents, and travelers find welcome here. Through restoration and hybrid programming, the garden becomes a place to play, heal, learn, and rediscover water’s slow movement through the land.

/software used/ Lumion, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Sketchup, AutoCAD