The expansion of the University science laboratories allowed for revisioning of the science facility landscape Through Through participation in the design process, the site’s natural areas – wooded ridge & rock outcrops – were identified as central to the student‘s shared identity of the area and to the greater community’s shared environmental ethic. San Juan plaza, creates common ground for the university community to come together, reflecting the process of education at Western-fostering students’ individuation- while at the same time increasing a sense of belonging, through experience of a defining landscape of this region: the San Juan Islands and Bellingham Bay. The indigenous materials – rocks and boulders excavated from the site – and native plants together with the local building materials of brick, gravel and concrete evoke this unique spirit of place. A sea of brick paving flows through an archipelago of islands fabricated of over 300 massive sandstone boulders and earth taken from the excavation of adjacent laboratory buildings. Swirling bands of brick recall the tides and currents.