Burnett (OJB), which has studios in Houston and San Diego, to design a visitor center for the estate. It was to be a place where the public could gather to learn about the history of the Annenbergs before visiting the house itself. However, what began in concept as a mere way station soon became a destination in its own right. “In 2006, we started the programming and design of the project with Mrs. Annenberg. We had a great relationship with her,” said James Burnett. “We took what everyone thought would just be a center and made the Sunnylands Center & Gardens.” Complete with a LEED Gold certification, the new Center & Gardens is a composition of color and texture achieved through a densely layered, yet sustainable, planting design. Frederick Fisher’s design for the Center takes its cues from the low, orthogonal, horizontal profiles and minimal materiality of Jones’ original. And, as with the original house, the building is approached via a curving drive that meanders through the landscape. However, the nine-acre gardens — which fill out the 15-acre site — make a significant departure from the neighboring grounds. “We took a different strategy with the landscape than the estate, which is predominately lawn and golf course,” said Burnett. “At the Center, we created a beautiful garden that is very rich and full with seasonal interest and uses minimal resources.” Burnett’s quest for fullness came in response to visiting nearby desert gardens, which tend to take the “specimen” approach with “onesies and twosies” of species well spaced out in a gravel mulch bed. “We wanted to try to take desert plants and give them more of a solid appearance, something where the plants would be designed in mass, where you would get large sweeps of a few interesting varieties,” said Burnett. “In the Coachella Valley, a lot of people try to mimic a desert environment, which is usually sparingly planted,” added Dillon Diers, vice president at OJB. “Jim and I tried to create something you might find more appealing — something that provokes a different emotion — rather than mimicking nature.”
48 Texas Architect
7/8 2013
OJB laid out the gardens with an eye for color, proportion, and line inspired by the impressionist and post-impressionist painters that the Annenbergs so loved. They worked with a palette of more than 50 different species (some 53,000 plants in all), most of which are native to the Sonoran Desert. Massed groups of agaves, yuccas, golden barrel cactus, and desert
OJB laid out the gardens with an eye for color, proportion, and line inspired by the impressionist and post-impressionist painters that the Annenbergs so loved. milkweed, among other species, occupy their own distinctly defined beds, appearing, from above, much like the strokes of color in a Cezanne or Van Gogh. “The view changes on a month-to-month basis,” said Burnett. “Some varieties of grasses and agaves and aloes are quite dramatic; they give you a lot of show and beauty.” Multiple hues of yellow, a particular favorite of Leonore Annenberg, emphasize the arrival of spring. The landscape scheme transitions from an orderly, geometric composition adjacent to the Center to a progressively more organic and freeflowing arrangement at the eastern end. The central event lawn beside the building provides a hint of the more traditional landscape to be found at the estate and caps the geothermal wells that service the Center’s HVAC system. Here, the agave and cacti, arranged in perfect rows and circular patterns, radiate from the lawn in tight planting patterns emphasized by the short palo verde trees. Enwrapped in the varied textural experience offered by the gardens, visitors walk along intimate paths that lead to a small performance space and a labyrinth. To the east of the Center, the landscape opens up, and thornless mesquite and palo brea trees present visitors with shade as they walk deeper into the gardens, where serpentine paths lead to a two-acre field of desert wildflowers. Poppies, primroses, desert marigolds, and chia are planted en masse, creating large sweeps of exploding colors. “The gardens are quite an