Millbrae, CA, October, 29, 2025 - Avia Labs is an exciting new addition to the San Francisco Bay Area, complete with LEED Gold and Fitwel certifications. At the entrance of the all-electric science research lab, the landscape design features several custom precast concrete benches by QCP. To dig into the inspiration behind the unique design and learn more about this collaborative effort, we spoke with Alaleh Rouhi, senior associate at SCAPE Landscape Architecture and the project manager for 210 Adrian.
For this project, Rouhi and her team at SCAPE created a three-tiered system with immersive landscapes: a streetscape plaza on the first floor, plus two levels of terraces.
“As a continuous part of the Bay Area streetscape, the landscape’s successional grove evokes the California riparian meadow ecology with precast benches that mimic driftwood, as if naturally deposited by the tide,” Rouhi says. “The precast benches truly feel like the gems of our landscape.”
The shapes of these benches are inspired by fallen trees, and feature crenulated back edges that “allow plants to shoot through the gaps, protecting them from exposure and compaction and blurring the lines between living systems and built structures,” the studio shared in an Instagram post in July.
From seeing the project as 3D models to the installation, Rouhi described working with QCP as “seamless and collaborative.”
“It was so amazing, we just modeled something in Rhino and [QCP] perfectly got it built,” she says. “Everyone was super responsive throughout the process and very supportive.”
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