Robin Johnson
Case Western Reserve University - Weatherhead School of Management
David Cooperrider
Ron Fry
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“Take Me Out To the Ballgame, Take Me Out To the….Botanic Gardens??” From Grass and Petunias to Botanic Beauty at Dodger Stadium....
Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles has almost reverential status for its myriad die-hard fans. As Chaz Perea, Professor of Horticulture at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA and Landscape Manager at Dodger Stadium expresses, “This land is sacred. We want fans to come to the game and take more away than just the game. L.A. is rich in beauty and we’re trying to be a part of it.” Thus, the transformation of Dodger Stadium from grass to graptopetalum, and from petunias to pachypodium is enshrining its place in history as our country’s first sports stadium with an accredited Botanic Garden. Dodger fans – and non-fans – alike are now lining up for tours of the Dodger Stadium grounds themselves, and not just to see a ballgame.
In addition to Garden tours, there are schools, youth groups, and adults coming to meet the Dodger Stadium landscape team in order to learn about horticulture, the environment, conservation, the value of hard work, and the dignity of honest manual labor.
Under Goal #8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, the Dodger Stadium landscape team is teaching youth throughout Los Angeles the value of work, the fundamentals and intricacies of horticulture, landscape design, and landscape maintenance. They are equipping these youth with the skills and attitudes to become productive, innovative, environmentally responsible, and financially successful citizens.
Under Goal #11, Sustainable Cities and Communities, the Dodger Stadium landscape team is transforming one of the most iconic properties in Los Angeles – Dodger Stadium – into a Botanic Garden with native and other drought-resistant plants. They are teaching adults and youth how to change the plant palettes in their yards to be more sustainable, and how to use better watering and planting techniques to save water, increase wildlife, and create beauty in open spaces.
Under Goal #13, Climate Action, Botanic Gardens can host important climate change research projects that would be difficult to do elsewhere. They have already added greatly to understanding natural responses to climate change, particularly the effects of temperature on the timing of flowering and leaf-out. They have also made significant contributions to the understanding of the relationships among climate, physiology, and anatomy. (Primack, R. B., & Miller-Rushing, A. J. (2009). The role of botanical gardens in climate change research. The New phytologist, 182(2), 303–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2009.02800.x)
Under Goal #15, Life On Land, Botanic Gardens provide spaces for endangered species of plants and animals, and for bringing balance to the ecosystem. As stated above, wildlife at Dodger Stadium has flourished since the transformation to the Botanic Garden. The Gardens also provide much-needed respite to urban dwellers visiting the Stadium, and to the hundreds of employees who are at the Stadium on a regular basis.
Chaz Perea and his team of landscape experts are transforming the hundreds of acres of grounds at Dodger Stadium into our country’s first sports arena with an accredited Botanic Garden. Most people think they know what a botanic garden is – a bunch of cactuses and succulents – but there is significantly more to it than that, including an intensive accreditation process. Dodger Stadium is registered with and accredited by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI, https://www.bgci.org) , an organization dedicated to “securing plant diversity for the well-being of people and the planet,” with aspirations to create “a world in which plant diversity is valued, secure, and supporting all life.” To receive accreditation, an organization must “show that they carry out a range of conservation-related policies, practices and activities.” There are multiple required areas of on-going conservation and sustainability that must be demonstrated.
When Chaz Perea first shared his ideas and vision of a botanic garden at Dodger Stadium with his dedicated, creative, and supportive landscape crew, their first question was “What’s a botanic garden??” So, the entire team – Chaz Perea, Pete Serna, Freddy Cortez, Jose Perez, Jose Sandoval, and Octavio Suarez – visited almost every botanic garden in Southern California and subsequently caught Perea’s enthusiasm. In addition to visiting a wide variety of botanic gardens, the team also attended classes and enrolled in a botanic certification program through the Theodore Payne Foundation. (Perea himself already holds multiple degrees in horticultural sciences, a certification as an arborist, and earned his MBA. Perea is currently working on a PhD in Business, with a focus on strategy, policy, and innovation, especially business model innovation.) In addition to their classes at the Theodore Payne Foundation, the landscape team undertook an enormous team-driven educational process of learning about many different kinds of plants, and what the plants need to take root and grow in these unique Southern California and Dodger Stadium environs.
Perea and his team wanted the gardens to first reflect native California plants, and then to include plants from other parts of the world that could do well in this unique horticultural environment. “We live in a desert. People forget that California is a desert. So we knew we needed to use plants that were sustainable within our own unique environment – low water, low maintenance.” Perea explains that there is actually a “tremendous amount of failure on the road to success” in the process of learning which plants will survive, and where they will flourish throughout the various hundreds of acres around the Stadium.
Many organizations hire an outside firm to do all of the design, development, and planning for their landscaping needs. However, Perea and his team of five knowledgeable, creative, skilled, and conscientious landscape experts did all of the design, planning, and implementation of the Gardens. Perea explained, “A lot of success in landscape design depends on knowing the site. We have so much elevation change, different soils, and varied water pressure, you really need to know the nooks and crannies in order to get anything to be successful.”
The team is always trying out new species in small batches, starting with very small plants, to test their viability and value to the overall garden scheme. Perea and his team of five dedicated souls are continually innovating. When they find a plant that is successful, they add it to additional areas in the ever-expanding garden. They have introduced more than 100 new species to the grounds. They have an extensive and exceptional “nursery” on the back of the Stadium grounds where they continually innovate and test out new plants, putting them in small sections on the hillsides and walkways around the stadium. They evaluate which plants are working, and discard and replace those that aren’t. Over the years, more and more areas have been converted. Because it can take years for plants to take root and then flourish, Perea is careful to start small and make gradual progress in multiple areas.
One of the team's favorite innovations is known as Tequila Island. It sports the Agave tequilana, better known as Weber’s TequilaAgave which grows natively in Mexico. In addition to the beauty of the blue-green leaves, the Island is a compliment and special nod to the significant base of Dodger fans that hail from Mexico.
Another important innovation was transforming the 100+ massive and iconic “martini glasses” cement structures which surround and are scattered throughout the Stadium. They had been filled with “petunia-type” plants in the past, and the structures were beginning to show their age. Perea and his team are in the process of repairing and refurbishing the containers, and filling them with succulents and other beautiful plants appropriate for a desert landscape.
Perea and his team are influencing the greater public to understand and appreciate conservation, and to learn how they can create more sustainable landscaping in their own environs. Education is paramount, and education of the public is one of the core drivers of Perea and his team. They give tours of the grounds and have various educational stations, one of which includes many different types of faucets and heads for watering, so people, especially children, can physically experience the difference in water usage that is created by using different techniques.
Last but not least, they are passionate about reaching the youth of Los Angeles, of being positive, honorable male role models for them, and imparting to them the skills, knowledge, and wisdom needed to care for this land, which will be the inheritance of these youth in years to come.
They have special events for children to come and learn about the grounds, learn about plants, the soil, water conservation, and the value of manual labor. Perea expanded on this by saying, “If you live in LA and you are like us, and you live in our socioeconomic level, there is a small chance you have a yard. And there is an even higher chance that you don’t have an adult male figure around. And if you do have an adult male figure in your life, he’s most likely not going to show you how to do stuff when he gets home from work. My belief is that all the members of my team are role models for these youth. They have so much to offer, the youth have so much that they need to see. My vision is that these youth coming to see the grounds will be the ones to take care of it after we are gone someday. The earlier we can get them out here and get their hands on plants and learn about air and water, the better for everybody. This is our over-arching mission.”
“Take Me Out To the Ballgame, Take Me Out To the….Botanic Gardens??” From Grass and Petunias to Botanic Beauty at Dodger Stadium
It was an unexpected epiphany….
When Chaz Perea (soon to be Dr. Perea), Professor of Horticulture at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, CA and Landscape Manager at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, visited the Gardens of Versailles in France in 2017, he was stunned by their splendor. He was also overwhelmed by the sudden realization that people crave beauty. “It completely amazed me that millions of people are willing to make enormous personal and financial sacrifices in order to witness and be part of something beautiful. Look at me! I sat in a cramped airplane for 10 or 12 hours, surrounded by strangers, then spent hundreds of dollars, just to come and look at something of enormous beauty for a few hours. The thought struck me, ‘We can do this at Dodger Stadium! We need to create a space where people can come, as a pilgrimage, and experience beauty.’”
Research in Harvard Business Review indicates that “meaning is the new money.” People want, and are looking for, meaning in their work. Perea and his team have a higher calling and mission for their labors. For them, it is educating the public about conservation and the environment, and how they can develop tangible skills to improve their own physical surroundings in the natural world. Their higher calling and mission also includes inspiring everyone about the sacredness of the land, the value of honest labor, and the importance of including nature in communities. As described above, this especially extends to the youth of Los Angeles, and especially those in a lower socioeconomic status, to give them the tools and the inspiration, and the adult male role models, for becoming responsible, successful adults.
For another source of inspiration, while visiting the Gardens of Versailles, Perea’s tour included driving through the back extended Garden area in a golf cart. Music played softly through the speakers, then paused to offer a description of a statue of Hercules or myriad other heroes. This made him think deeply about the grounds at Dodger Stadium. “As a crew, we spend so much time on the grounds, in the landscape. I began to think about ‘what is our over-arching goal?’ I realized that we should be a Garden that should rival Versailles, we should be a place that people make a pilgrimage to…the beauty will speak for itself.”
With the world now more focused than ever on climate change issues, transitioning the hundreds of acres surrounding Dodger Stadium into a sustainable environment that is based on and infused with natural beauty is imperative.
Continuing with inspiration from his tour of Europe, along with the sheer beauty of the gardens there, Perea was completely awestruck at the architectural gems surrounding him. “These structures have been built and occupied for thousands of years. The attention to detail is on an entirely different scale than what we experience here. The amount of effort that went into making something beautiful was exponential, even for basic buildings.”
Perea carried that inspiration back with him to Los Angeles: sustainability is not just limited to horticulture. Perea exclaimed, “What struck me is that [people in Europe] have a full business model based on people coming to look at things that are beautiful. That is a sustainable business model – people traveling across the freaking world just to look at something beautiful! They don’t even touch it, they don’t even leave with it, they just look at it and say, ‘Yes, that was worth it! That was the highlight of my life!’ That totally blew my mind! I knew I wanted to create something like that at Dodger Stadium.”
Perea continues that architectural design inspiration and innovation into the team’s Workshop. Its extraordinarily organized equipment and workspaces are adorned with pictures of both classic and modern artwork lining the walls, reminding one an art museum…in the midst of a landscaping workshop and warehouse. The juxtaposition could not be more stark, yet is emblematic of Perea and the team he has assembled, and the vision they are creating for Los Angeles.
Full spectrum flourishing is a phrase that can aptly describe the overall impact of transforming the grounds of Dodger Stadium into an accredited botanic garden. There is increased wellbeing and success for everyone – the community, customers, employees, management, and the rising generation. “The gardening has piqued interest in everyone. People seem to like going outside more.” Perea continues, “You have hundreds of people here on a regular basis who hadn’t really noticed things, but now they are coming outside more, asking questions, taking pictures, sending them to us. What’s the benefit to them? So let’s say you have a job at a place with ordinary landscaping, or you have a job where there is an accredited botanic garden – that’s the job you show up at every day, where you can take your lunch in it. The benefit is enormous.”
Numerous studies have shown that people who have views of nature from their offices have better rates of mental health. Having a “functional green space” in the vicinity has a positive impact on the overall wellbeing of a community. The Botanic Gardens contribute to that, and make a long-term difference. The impact of the Gardens is being felt throughout the Los Angeles area, and people now recognize Perea and his team as the “gardening guys” at Dodger Stadium when they are out and about in their uniforms. Before, no one paid any attention to them, but now they are recognized – “Hey, you’re those guys who are making the Botanic Gardens at Dodger Stadium!”
Short term challenges: “We were putting in so many new species, and we didn’t know what the heck we were doing! We were learning as we were going….” Because this was a project with conscious experimentation, some of the plants survived and thrived, some didn’t – it is an ongoing research project to find which plants will work in such varied circumstances around the Stadium.
Another challenge was that because the team starts with tiny plants only a few inches tall, it “didn’t look like anything” for a few years until the growth increased. There was definitely a level of discouragement for people to look at the “new” landscaping and just see tiny plants and lots of dirt. It actually looked rather ugly for a long time before it started to fill in and “look like something.” It can often take four years or more for plants to develop.
Long term challenges: “As the plants grow and mature, we have made some mistakes in our pruning – pruning too low, pruning too high, not pruning enough. This is a years’ long process of learning….” This is especially true because the land at the Stadium is so diverse. The weather itself is also a challenge. Perea and his team always start with small plants, and try to put them in when it’s cool, but then an unexpected heat wave will come through, and the plants will die from being too tender.
Another challenge is that Perea and his team are also responsible for the daily upkeep around the Stadium, besides the innovations and care of the ongoing Botanic Gardens initiative. They may have plans to work on something with the Gardens, and then an emergency of some sort arises – a tree falling down in a windstorm, for example – and that takes priority over their plans for the Gardens. They are also doing tours of the Gardens, which are increasing the interest in the Stadium, and is good public outreach. They wear a lot of hats, which requires careful time management and planning.
Long term benefits: Perea says, “The long term personal benefits are similar to the long term challenges – you’re going to learn a lot!” This on-going learning helps the team maintain interest in their jobs, where maintenance can sometimes be repetitive and boring. Because there is a continual level of growth, as individuals and as a team, there is high engagement in their work.
Another long-term benefit is to the youth. Perea and his team are continually working to get more and more youth out to the site, where they can learn about plants and water and soil, where they can learn a wide range of skills, and where they can get a glimpse of innovative educational and employment opportunities. This can inspire them to envision a positive future. Besides having a vision, they will have the skills and attitudes needed to create a positive future for themselves, their families, and communities.
As Perea says, “There’s not a single teacher in all of LA Unified School District that says to any of the 40,000 students in LA, ‘Hey, you can be a landscaper when you grow up! That can be a good job!’ Not a single one. But it can be a good job, it can be a fulfilling job. There are a lot of kids who like to work with their hands and prefer to be outdoors. More importantly, there are a lot of kids who hate being inside and hate working on a computer and being in front of a screen. What options are there for them? No one is telling them that there are other options where they can go and do something that is suited to them. I think that’s outrageous.”
To their credit, the Dodger Stadium management has been very supportive of Perea, his team, and their vision for the Botanic Gardens. Initially, during the annual budget meetings, Perea met with the CEO, CFO, and the data analytics personnel, looking at department goals, and the first time they saw “Botanic Garden” in the budget, they said, “What’s a botanic garden? How does that relate to a sports arena? What does a garden have to do with a sports? What is the revenue benefit? How much is this going to cost??” Perea responded, “I CAN do this for you. The benefit is for the community and for everybody. You’ll understand once we do it. I know you don’t understand now, but trust me, we can make this work. We’ll start with tiny plants and we’ll do it within our budget.”
Management responded that they trusted Perea, they had witnessed first-hand how operationally fit he and his team are, and gave their blessing and approval to go forward with the project, and encouragement to make it happen. Perea reports that after an article about the team and the gardens appeared in the Los Angeles Times, management was fully onboard, and saw how this initiative could directly benefit the entire organization on multiple levels.
Dodger Stadium is already one of the most well-attended stadiums in the world, and a heightened attendance is usually connected to the success of the baseball game season. However, since the Gardens have been implemented and developed, more and more people are calling in and sending emails about the beauty of the Gardens, including reaching out directly to Perea or calling the front office to comment and compliment on how they love these innovations and improvements.
Right now, the financial benefit has been small; however, Perea is creating multiple avenues for future growth. For example, as plants are getting bigger, Perea has been having some plant sales, which has been very successful. He also has plans for horticultural and environmental conservation classes, in addition to those already offered to school children, and for selling Dodger-themed gardening equipment and other items in a gift shop setting for the public.
An additional benefit, which is growing over time, is that people are starting to come to the Stadium for more than just a ballgame. The Gardens attract people who normally wouldn’t come to the Stadium, and they inspire visitors to come there on non-game days. Dodger Stadium's Botanic Garden has already garnered increasing attention from multiple sources, as indicated by articles appearing in various publications, such as the Los Angeles Times, Sunset Magazine, and appearing on Telemundo.
In terms of how this transformation positively impacts general prosperity within the community, there are multiple facets at work. Having a greater awareness of plants, conservation, and environmentalism gives people enhanced knowledge and skills to improve the conditions at their own homes and in their communities. Next, having a beautiful location where people can walk around and experience such a diversity of nature brings a level of felt prosperity. Being in nature has been shown to increase people’s sense of wellbeing, and raises people's spirits.
As indicated in the “Inspiration” section above, the social impact on those visiting the botanic gardens has been significant. Perea and his team partner with various schools in the area, and are passionate about teaching the youth, and the adults who accompany them, about plants, water, conservation, the environment, sustainability, etc.
Not only that, Perea and his team are also passionate about instilling in these youth respect for honest, manual labor, and learning that landscaping is a legitimate, honorable career path. They are fully aware that many kids do not want to be stuck indoors sitting in front of a computer for the rest of their lives. Perea and his team are a living embodiment of the value of diversity of work, of having a powerful work ethic, and of being solid, honorable, skilled male role models for these youth. They feel very keenly that they are raising up the next generation that will care for these sacred grounds when Perea and his team have passed away, yet the Gardens live on.
In addition to teaching young people, Perea and his team have water conservation classes and demonstrations for the public. They have various types of sprinkler heads installed where people can see how much water comes out of various heads. They are also promoting the idea that even just simply planting is a way of saving water, by changing your plant palette. They also teach how to create landscaping that requires less maintenance.
Another benefit to the environment, especially by gardening with native plants and plants suited to a desert environment, is that botanic gardening versus the “grass and petunia” gardening is significantly more sustainable. Southern California is in a perpetual state of drought, and offering legitimate and beautiful options for managing landscaping in ways that reduces water usage is a powerful protector of the environment.
An unexpected benefit is that wildlife is beginning to flourish in the hundreds of acres surrounding the Stadium, especially pollinators. “Everything is starting to flourish and return, from the coyotes to the ground squirrels to the tree squirrels…the hummingbird population is absurd!” They report that the butterfly population has skyrocketed, and the monarchs are taking full advantage of the milkweed Perea and his team planted specifically for them. Flourishing wildlife is a boon to an entire ecosystem.
In short, with visions of Versailles propelling them forward, the transformation of Dodger Stadium into a botanic beauty – the country’s first sports area with an accredited botanic garden – is nothing short of phenomenal. Moving from grass to graptopetalum, from petunias to pachypodium, Perea and his team are creating a beacon of light throughout all of Southern California, and the world, for sustainability, conservation, education, and hope for the raising generation.
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Chaz Perea, Landscape Manager
Pete Serna, Landscape Team
Freddy Cortez, Landscape Team
Jose Perez, Landscape Team
Jose Sandoval, Landscape Team
Octavio Suarez, Landscape Team
Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California is one of the most iconic and revered sports arenas in the country. Home to the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, it also hosts many other significant events throughout the year. Now drawing the attention of the public is the transformation of the Dodger Stadium grounds into the country's first accredited Botanic Garden. This transition "from grass to graptopetalum, and from petunias to pachypodiumgrass" is garnering high praise for conservation and sustainability, in addition to native beauty, and is generating an increasing number of visitors to the Stadium on non-game days.