The design of the VA Welcome Center combined function with celebration, utilizing a vehicular turnaround island as a memorial with basalt columns and a circle of flags. Welcoming visitors to the VA campus, the arrival plaza was a quintessential urban plaza planted with trees in a diagonal grid pattern that established scale and provided welcome shade. By maintaining openness in the plaza design, Carducci Associates created not only a striking landmark but also a versatile event space. Our landscape design extended to a Healing Garden where ornamental and California native trees, shrubs, and grasses were included.