Quintet Condominiums are considered one of the best places to live in the forested West Hills area of Portland. The HOA is also one of the best places to nest and forage for a thriving community of wildlife and pollinators who frequent the property’s nature-rich landscape and adjacent Tualatin Creek.
Originally conceived and designed in the 1990s by award-winning master landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu, who also designed Portland’s Japanese Garden, Quintet’s environmentally-sound landscape is a “world of biodiverse beauty unto its own,” says Laura House, DeSantis’ regional manager and horticulturist who oversees the property’s landscape maintenance, irrigation and site improvement projects.
Recently, that world, with the help of a Tualatin Creek Watershed Improvement Grant, allowed the DeSantis team and the firm’s lead landscape designer, Soren Hughes, to revitalize the ecology of the creek and its adjacent riparian systems.
“Watershed restoration is the ultimate public health project,” said Laura. “Waterways and wetlands are critical for the environment but they also bring people together. We’re finding that there is a psychological benefit to being around water, being in nature, and the profound regenerating impact it has on improved mental and physical health. People love the wildlife and the soothing power of the natural world, and we love creating solutions that are in line with the conservation mandate that has long been a hallmark of our firm,” she adds.
Soren says that Tualatin Creek improvements go far beyond resource conservation. “When you build systems focused on natural solutions, you increase environmental resilience—how we construct check dams in swales, wetlands that filter stormwater and decrease silt, habitats that enable a wide variety of species to thrive, and increase the quality of life for all living things.”
To learn more about DeSantis Landscapes full-service capabilities and its commitment to environmental stewardship, go to: www.desantislandscapes.com
Photo: Soren Hughes, DeSantis Landscapes © 2022
