Newport Beach Civic Center Park

Newport Beach California

Architect: Bohlin, Cywinski, Jackson

2015 Architectural Engineering Project of the Year 

2015 AIA-PA Citation Award

The Newport Beach Civic Center and Park, located on a 16 acre site adjacent to the central library, is conceived as a new civic heart for the community. Spaces for civic gathering, passive recreation and public art are integrated into habitat areas showcasing southern California’s indigenous plant communities. Civic gardens and a central civic green in the southern portion of the site transition to passive recreation parkland providing habitat for native flora and fauna. Representative plant communities include Torrey pine woodland, coastal sage scrub, chaparral, and grassland meadows. 

Site constraints such as highly alkaline existing soils, existing wetlands, and a grade change of 120 feet along the length of the site demanded innovative thinking to accommodate programmatic goals and provide suitable horticultural conditions. The use of ecological principles in an indigenous plant community based approach to planting design, coupled with storm water detention and treatment, were instrumental in addressing sustainability goals and water conservation. Signage across the park describing plant communities educates the public and provides the foundation for a new ecological literacy.

Phoebe Lickwar was responsible for planting design across the park, in addition to design team coordination and project management from Schematic Design through Construction Documentation.

Work completed at PWP Landscape Architecture.