The Puget Sound region is renowned for its breathtaking scenery, where verdant landscapes and towering mountains meet the shimmering waters of the Pacific. Nestled along the waterfront at Elliott Bay is Expedia’s 41-acre Seattle headquarters, built in 2020. A travel technology company, Expedia ironically created a place no one would ever want to leave: a campus that serves as a testament to the area’s natural beauty, seamlessly integrating the built environment with the surrounding ecosystem. A recipient of LEED Gold, Salmon Safe, and SITES v2 Gold certifications, the site integrates biophilic design principles, native plantings, and sustainable stormwater strategies to create an immersive experience that connects employees, visitors, and the surrounding environment.
Expedia tasked Surfacedesign, Inc., a San Francisco-based landscape architecture firm, to create a campus that aligned with the company’s commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. Surface Design built upon the eco-conscious objectives by developing an “experience-based” campus. Biophilic design principles shaped the campus, with native plantings and sustainable stormwater strategies that reflect the diverse ecosystems of western Washington.
Eight unique plant communities in the Expedia landscape represent a variety of natural habitats found in western Washington. The landscape reflects a Pacific Northwest Forest planted with Douglas fir, cedar, hemlock, and larch underplanted with evergreen huckleberry, salal, and ferns. This then transitions to an open woodland of native dogwood trees, red twig dogwood, and flowering red currant. Elsewhere, a gravel beach with dune plantings, driftwood logs, and boulders define the western edge where the landscape meets Puget Sound.
More than just beautiful, however, the Expedia campus optimizes a variety of sustainable landscape design practices.
Integration. The campus is seamlessly linked to the Elliott Bay Trail, which was redesigned to improve safety and accessibility as well as be open to the public. A new public space, known as The Point, softens the trail’s original sharp corner into a more fluid curve, while separate pedestrian and bicycle pathways enhance circulation. Along the western edge of Smith Cove, the trail meanders through a linear park, enriched with native plantings that enhance habitat quality.
Resilient Shoreline & Habitat Restoration. The campus’s proximity to Elliott Bay provided an opportunity for ecological restoration along the shoreline. The landscape design includes elements that stabilize the waterfront edge while enhancing habitat for local species. This includes salt-tolerant vegetation and strategic planting to support pollinators and migratory birds.
Native & Adaptive Plantings. The landscape prioritizes biodiversity through a carefully curated selection of native and Salmon-Safe plantings, which supports local wildlife, improves stormwater infiltration, and reduces maintenance needs. These plantings also reinforce the site’s natural aesthetic, creating a landscape that changes with the seasons while requiring minimal irrigation.
Outdoor Work & Gathering Spaces. Designed to promote well-being and outdoor engagement, the campus features a variety of open spaces, including courtyards, terraces, and garden areas with seating. These spaces serve as outdoor work environments, meeting areas, and places for relaxation, reinforcing the connection between employees and nature.
Sustainable Stormwater Management. The landscape incorporates green infrastructure strategies that help reduce runoff, improve water quality, and enhance the overall ecological function of the campus. In fact, the environmentally-friendly bioswales, rain gardens, green roofs, and permeable surfaces absorb and collect around 95% of all rainwater that falls on the site; the captured water is fed into cisterns then recycled throughout the landscape, including a 12,000-square-foot water feature.
Once the landscape design was completed and installed, the Expedia Property Management team sought a partner to maintain and nurture its evolving, native ecosystem. That’s when my company, Los Angeles-based Monarch Landscape Companies, was entrusted with sustaining the carefully-crafted vision.
Our team is committed to preserving and enhancing this dynamic landscape, ensuring it remains a thriving, lush environment that embodies the beauty of the Pacific North- west. With a deep commitment to sustainability, we proudly follow in the footsteps of Surfacedesign, Expedia, and the Property Management Team continuously seeking innovative ways to steward the site. Leading our team efforts are horticulturists who oversee daily operations, ensuring that best practices are implemented to support shortand long-term landscape health.
Additionally, we leverage expertise from our specialists to address challenges, introduce forward-thinking solutions, and cultivate an environment that offers a “surprise and delight” experience for employees and visitors alike. Caring for such an iconic landscape in Seattle is both an honor and a responsibility—one that our team embraces with dedication, expertise, and a passion for sustainable landscape management.
Here are just a few of the unique landscape features we oversee at the campus.
Expedia’s Prairie Rooftop. Installed in 2024, the green roof creates a novel urban setting for western Washington native plants and insect biodiversity. This project investigates patterns of seasonal plants and pollinator biodiversity and provides a first glimpse of the plant-pollinator interactions unfolding in this new habitat area. A native prairie rooftop is an alternative green roof strategy.
The landscape successfully merges urban functionality with ecological sensitivity
Western Washington has a diverse and beautiful set of native plants that are pre-adapted to the wet winters/ dry summer extremes that characterize our climate: the plants of the Cascadia prairies. These prairie ecosystems, now rare due to development and land use changes, host a plethora of gorgeous native wildflowers.
Salmon-Safe. Expedia is proud to be one of the first campuses in the U.S. to achieve Salmon-Safe certification. We adhere to all required guidelines and actively collaborate with the organization to explore new, sustainable practices that protect the landscape and surrounding wildlife. In 2023, Expedia was successfully
recertified, with our team exceeding all requirements through comprehensive reporting and continued environmental stewardship.
Sustainable Maintenance. To minimize our environmental footprint, our team utilizes small electric-powered landscape tools for daily maintenance, comprising about 75% of our equipment. This commitment reduces carbon emissions and supports a cleaner, quieter work environment. As electric landscape tools continue to advance, we will continue to introduce this equipment as it becomes available.
We also employ mulch mowing techniques on-site. This helps the lawn by recycling grass clippings back into the soil, acting as a natural fertilizer and providing essential nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The approach promotes healthier, greener grass while also helping to retain soil moisture and regulate temperature by creating a protective layer on the ground.
Adaptive Landscape Techniques. It’s essential to understand the natural behavior of on-site plants including their pH, watering preferences, reproduction methods, and how they grow in optimal environments. As such, we apply maintenance techniques that foster biodiversity and wildlife habitats to ensure the landscape can withstand environmental challenges such as climate change, urbanization, and resource scarcity. One technique we use is dividing ornamental grasses on-site to then transplant into areas needing more biodiversity and protection for pollinators and birds.
These are just some of the efforts currently being cultivated at the Expedia campus. The landscape successfully merges urban functionality with ecological sensitivity, creating a forward-thinking model for corporate sustainability in an urban waterfront setting. n
All photos courtesy of Fabián Sanin / Monarch Landscape Companies
Monarch Landscape Companies
(425) 873-4856
www.monarchlandscape.com