Glendale beauties

Glendale Beautiful has recognized five properties in town that members believe keep the city beautiful.

They were honored Tuesday during the Community Beautification Awards Luncheon at the Joe Bridges Clubhouse in Glendale.

Glendale Beautiful’s objective is to promote, encourage and protect the beauty of the community, said President Kathryn E. Van Houten.

“To that end, giving an award to commercial properties that take extra care to beautify their property is part of our mission at Glendale Beautiful,” she said.

Properties recognized were Pacific BMW, Glendale Community College, Glendale Adventist Medical Center’s West Tower, New Moon Restaurant and the Glendale Heritage Garden, at 141 S. Cedar St.

The heritage garden is one of the newest projects of the Glendale Community Services and Parks, said Julie Shermer, a board member of Glendale Beautiful and Beautification Awards chairwoman.

“And it is something special because there was a Craftsman-style bungalow on the property, and usually they take the structures off the property completely, and what they did was preserve and restore that historic Craftsman bungalow. And planted beautiful landscaping around it.”

Layla Bettar, a city of Glendale architect with the parks department, was the project manager for the Glendale Heritage Garden. She managed the project from inception to completion, which included going to community meetings and gathering feedback that was presented to the City Council, historical commission and parks commission. She also supervised construction.

The project involved renovating the 1913 Craftsman-style bungalow and updating the landscape, she said.

Bettar worked with Melinda Taylor and Associates, who specializes in garden design and created the gardens on the rooftop of the Disney Concert Hall.

“It’s beautiful. It’s unique,” Bettar said. “It’s designed as a garden, not as a park. And it’s a Craftsman garden, which historically had an orchard garden with fruit and avocado trees.”

The Craftsman movement was connected to nature and natural materials, and that’s what consultants have created here, she said.

The garden is eco-friendly, Bettar said, and features a meandering natural path made of decomposed granite. The plants are California native and drought-tolerant.

There are natural wood benches and tables of Ipe, a hard wood that resists carving, Bettar said.

The project has some recycled materials as well, she added. An L-shaped trellis was fitted with concrete flooring that was removed from a renovation project on Colorado Street.

The trellis will feature climbing vines of jasmine and honeysuckle.

Bettar is proud to receive the honor from Glendale Beautiful, which will be a bonus to mention during the opening ceremony of the heritage garden May 1, she said.

“We saved a few of the trees that were there, so the garden will open with huge mature trees,” she said.

Pacific BMW has done a lot of work to improve the building, Van Houten said.

“It has clean lines and looks so elegant,” she said.

Glendale Community College is a beautiful campus, Van Houten added.

“The quad area is very aesthetically pleasing, and the administrative and planetarium buildings are very impressive,” she said.

Of Adventist’s new West Wing, Van Houten said it’s “just gorgeous.”

“The glass and steel — it’s just very impressive — very modern looking,” she said.

Serving on the awards committee was a great perk of being the president of Glendale Beautiful, Van Houten said.

“For years, I have looked around the community at businesses that make the effort to be aesthetically pleasing, and I am very happy to be part of Glendale Beautiful’s award day event to honor businesses that make that extra effort to benefit our community with beauty,” she said.