Rancho Vista Corporate Center is a Class A Office and R&D campus in San Diego’s North County region.

Formerly the headquarters of Hewlett-Packard, the 67.5-acre campus underwent an $80 million renovation project from 2016 to 2020, transforming it into a sprawling campus with multiple outdoor amenities. The client’s goal was to create an inviting, spacious workplace where employees could live, work, and play – indoors and out.

Challenges

1) When our team assumed maintenance work on the property, the irrigation technician was informed that there were 12 controllers but only two were functioning. The staff at Hewlett-Packard had been turning on around 500 valves by hand, so the plants were suffering from inconsistent watering schedules and the HP staff was wasting a significant amount of time managing irrigation.

2) During the renovation process, all landscape installation and maintenance work was performed while tenants were occupying the buildings. The client’s priority was to create a peaceful environment for tenants and their employees, so managing the large renovation project without disturbing the peace proved challenging.

3) A large part of the landscape is xeriscape with drip irrigation. Because xeriscape plants are spaced out, weeds are more visible and look even more unnatural than in regular flower beds.

Solutions

1) Because the irrigation system was not functioning properly, our team had to tone wire to trace it in order to find irrigation breaks without breaking asphalt. Next, our team recommended and installed a two-wire irrigation system with decoders and a pedestal controller to fix the entire system. This $120,000 project fixed all of the irrigation issues and saved the existing landscape from further damage.

2) Our team worked closely with the property manager to develop a service schedule that would be least disruptive to the tenants. We communicated frequently and built a successful, trusted partnership that allowed us to maintain a peaceful environment while performing the work.

3) A successful weed abatement program is a top priority for the client due to the nature of the landscape. Since a large part of the landscape is watered through drip irrigation, pre-emergent can’t be watered in. Our team monitors the weather and applies it when there is rain in the forecast so it can be evenly dispersed throughout the xeriscape beds.

LandCare was awarded a Silver NALP Award of Excellence in 2021 for its work at Rancho Vista Corporate Center. For photos and more, please visit the awards photo gallery here.