Liquid Sugar’s landscape courtyards restore a sense of place to the community by reconnecting the clean, modern lofts with the site's industrial heritage.
Liquid Sugar is a modern, six-building multi-family residential complex built on the site of a former factory that transformed granulated sugar into a colorless liquid used in food production. While the architecture was widely lauded when it was built in 2002, the landscape within the development remained untouched for more than a decade. Groundworks Office designed a series of lushly planted courtyards to improve resident's privacy while giving them a more beautiful, welcoming, and practical outdoor space.
Our design process began with understanding the industrial process that once took place on-site. We learned how the sugar was unloaded, stored, sifted, heated, and filtered. These historical images and processes inspired us to design a series of mounds broken up by industrial-inspired porous walls. Contaminated soil capped three feet below grade challenged us to think creatively about how to add larger trees to the site, inspiring us to regrade the courtyards and build up small mounds to create subtle terraces defined by walls made from weathering steel.
Designed to recall the industrial devices used to liquify granulated sugar, the perforated panels are illuminated from within by concealed lighting to sparkle like sugar in the sun — day or night. Concrete planters shaped like rough hewn crystals recall the forms of unrefined sugar and bring together the paved areas and garden.
GWO's landscape for Liquid Sugar was recognized by the Northern California ASLA with a Merit Award.