Details
SmogShoppe Annex
The SmogShoppe is a multi-use event space that was once a 1980’s Smog Check station. Now powered 100% by solar energy, the LEED platinum event space hosts weddings, parties, film and PR events in a 6,500 square foot interior courtyard.
The SmogShoppe Annex is a secondary courtyard in the complex that is used as an outdoor wedding chapel. A series of planted double gates create a dramatic entrance to the space and block out sound from the street.
Design Challenge
The challenge was to take a concrete corridor between two buildings and dampen the sound while still allowing pedestrian passage into an adjacent courtyard. It was also desirable to create a more green and dramatic entry experience for people entering the courtyard.
A series of two gates were created, with offset doorways so that pedestrians need to take a snake like path to enter the courtyard. By offsetting the doorways, so that they did not line up, more sound is absorbed. The lower half of the outer gate rolls side to side so that it can be pushed into a position where the doorways do line up to aid in load in/load out.
Two of the walls are in the shade of the building most of the day. Plants needed to be selected for the individual micro-climates of each side of the gate. Multiple valves were put on the irrigation allowing more water to the tops of the walls that need more water since they are in sunshine more of the day and have more air flow around them.
Date of Install
June 2011
Owner
Designers
Form LA is an award winning landscape design, construction and maintenance firm that has unique and varied experience working with landscape and regional vegetation in the Los Angeles area.
Also designed by Woolly Pocket
Access
The gates and main SmogShoppe living wall are accessible for private events. The living walls are not visible from the street.
Climate
The SmogShoppe is in hardiness zone 10. Both the inner and outer gate have a side that gets a lot of sun and a side that is in shade most of the day.
Details
Pockets
The gates at the SmogShoppe Annex use (12) Chocolate Wally Threes and (42) Wally Fives without reservoir.
The outer gate, that can roll, has (60) Pockets on each side. The inner gate is covered in (54) Pockets on each side. Additionally, an adjacent green wall is composed of (100) Pockets.
A set of two gates form a connection between two industrial buildings. The structures are created out of wooden joists connecting the buildings and vertical steel supports. The lower half of one of the gates rolls, allowing the walkway to configured to either the right or left of the wall.
Details
Plant List
The initial planting called for approx. (600) 8” and 1 gallon plants to create an instant lush effect.
Outside gate (shady side):
Agapanthus ‘Baby Pete’
Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyers’
Asplenium ‘Austral Gem’
Clivia miniata ‘Belgian Hybrid Orange’
Coprosma ‘Evening Glow’
Rumohra adiantiformis
Outside gate (sunny side):
Agapanthus ‘Baby Pete’
Asparagus ‘sprengeri’
Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyers’
Inside Gate (shady side):
Agapanthus ‘Baby Pete’
Rumohra adiantiformis
Senecio serpens (Kleinia repens)
Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyers’
Inside Gate (sunny side):
Agave
Senecio serpens
E. Elgans
Plectranthus amboinicus
Asparagus densiflorus
Agapanthus ‘Baby Pete’
Cordyline festival grass
Trailing Jade
Diedes
Tradescantia zebrina
Details
Irrigation
The living wall is watered with a drip irrigation system. The drip line is 1/4” self-regulating ½ gph emitters spaced every 6”. A timer automatically triggers the system to run 3x a week for 10 minutes. A backflow preventer is connected to the supply line.