BASE Landscape Architecture

Patricia Algara was born and raised in Central Mexico, she is the founder and president of award-winning BASE Landscape Architecture firm in San Francisco, CA. A recognized leader in sustainable design and community involvement, Patricia creates landscapes that immerse people of all backgrounds and abilities in learning, exploration and play. Patricia’s community involvement and advocacy expand the boundaries of traditional landscape architecture. She founded an NGO "With Honey in the Heart" that creates healthy habitats for pollinators. She has lectured at many national and international universities and has won two national faculty ASLA awards. She received her MLA from UC Berkeley in 2007.

A Safer World Begins with the Smallest Bee-ing

My experience as a woman and as a feminist has made me look at the importance of creating safety above everything in public open spaces and the built environment. My other focus in landscape architecture is always through the lens of creating healthy habitat for all “bee-ings”, especially pollinators. If we design spaces that are good and healthy for bees, then we are creating spaces that are healthy for everyone.

Balancing Urban Beauty with Ecological Repair

Some of the challenges in creating ecologically balanced spaces within urban environments include limited space, competing land uses and ongoing maintenance needs. Native plants and wildlife also tend to adapt and thrive differently in urban areas compared to natural ecosystems.

Ten years ago, we created a pollinator garden in two medians along a busy San Francisco street. At the time, many people told us that pollinators would never come because of the garden’s close proximity to fast-moving traffic. Still, we carefully selected low-water, pesticide-free, pollinator-friendly plants that bloom throughout the year – and the pollinators came. A few years later, an entomological inventory found 22 pollinator species at the site, including 11 native bee species. Isn’t it amazing? And it was not just the native bees that benefited–the soil quality in the medians improved as well. Microbial activity increased and the active carbon in the soil almost doubled.

The improvements in the soil quality may not be visible to the naked eye, but what people can clearly see is how the aesthetics of these two medians have transformed over time. Residents in the neighborhood now see the space as their own shared garden. To keep it healthy and well-maintained, we organize monthly volunteer workdays. The project continues to thrive because of the dedication of the community and the support of our stakeholders.

Creating Nature-Driven Spaces with Communities

We approach collaboration with clients and stakeholders by inviting them to become active co-creators in the process. We organize community workshops, participate in community meetings and work closely with the stakeholders to hear their voices and ideas. It is a deeply collaborative process grounded in active listening, shared engagement and meaningful partnership.

We draw from broader educational research and cultivate relationships with experts to ensure that each project is informed by the best and most current knowledge. We participate in hands -on learning opportunities, including nature play building workshops where we learn directly from contractors about the construction process, as well as community workdays where we help build nature playgrounds alongside local partners and volunteers. This process helps us built a growing network of nature playscapes across the Bay Area. By transforming existing childcare centers using natural materials throughout our designs, we create environments that inspire curiosity, exploration and deeper connections to the natural world. We also integrate ecological infrastructure into these spaces to support climate resilience, environmental stewardship and strengthen community well-being.

Designing for Climate Resilience and Biodiversity

Some of the key trends in landscape architecture today include the use of low-maintenance native plantings, integrated water management systems and strategies that support biodiversity in response to increasingly extreme climate conditions. In recent years, the Bay Area—and San Francisco in particular—has experienced severe flooding events. In our office, we collaborate with local municipal agencies on projects that incorporate stormwater management strategies into parks and school campuses to improve resilience and environmental performance. One of our projects, for example, involves daylighting a creek within a large park to manage stormwater through seasonal flow channels and bioretention areas. The proposed native plantings will create habitat that will support birds, insects and other wildlife. In addition, the project integrates underground water-collection cisterns and provides a high-efficiency irrigation system.

Wisdom From Experience

Be bold and follow your passion. We need you in this profession, the full and brightest version of you shining all your light and taking all the space with your innovative ideas. No time to play small.