Savanna Designs

Incorporating native plants into an industrial landscape.

This project demonstrates the positive integration of ecosystem restoration with traditional “corporate lawn” on a typical industrial park site. This seven acre site is located just beyond the suburbs, in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. As with all corporate projects, neatness and maintainability are important aspects in projecting a good corporate image to customers and the community. Ethics of care and citizenship often drive commercial landscapes to become predictable, consumptive seas of bluegrass lawn. This project was to be different; our client, and the architect, wanted to “naturalize” much of the property and create a more responsible landscape that reduces the use of fertilizer, water, and mowing.