Plaza shade structure constructed for the NUVIS Owens Lake landscape project (T30-1). | Photo: Christopher Langley.
Editor note: This is the second in a series of articles on Perry Cardozas land art project in the Owens Valley, read the first article here.
If landscape as an entity does not exist -- if it is in all cases a mental construct -- then these earthworks are, among other things, the means of re-presenting a particular place. The appearance of that place becomes a part of the content of the work, whether in photographs or in reality, and whether the artists intend it fully, partially, or not at all.
-- Elizabeth C. Baker, Artworks on the Land in Art In the Land: A Critical Anthology of Environmental Art, edited by Alan Sonfist
My first impression was as if I just landed on Mars, landscape architect Perry Cardoza says of the first time he visited Owens Lake, the large dry desert lake that Los Angeles Department of Water and Power drained by the 1920s via the L.A. Aqueduct, precipitating the Owens Valley Water Wars. Cardoza continues, The scale of the playa, the smells, the exposure, the lack of plant material and shade... I could go on and on. Eventually he came up with a two-part land art installation made up of a central plaza, and surrounding paths and roads called Owens Lake Trails.
I spent an early fall morning with Cardoza as he worked with the contractors on tweaking the realization of his complex designs on the alien, and severely altered landscape of this dwindling Pleistocene lake in the Upper Mojave desert. The sink of the lake lies in the slowly sinking Owens Valley floor, geologically called a graben. On either side, the Sierra Nevada and Inyo Mountains rise to create what many have called the deepest valley. Cardoza had been awarded the large task of creating an installation on this lake. He goes on, After spending some time on the playa, I started to imagine what if? I have to say having clients that allow design to flow naturally and to have an open mind on how we interpreted dust mitigation and habitat creation was astonishing.
Owens Lake trails designed as part of the NUVIS Owens Lake landscape project (T30-1). | Photo: Christopher Langley.
Before this land art and bird habitat installation could be, there was the Owens Lake Master Plan Committee, a group of user groups and stakeholders that included LADWP, State Land Commission, Inyo County, and various environmental groups that met regularly at the lake and in Bishop, California. It was like a crash course in everything Owens Lake with the goal of creating a plan to address the many challenges the lake presents and the California Supreme Court had ordered be addressed.
Then the DWP withdrew and everyone that had worked so hard wondered if DWP was actually going to walk away. Later Los Angeles announced its own Owens Lake Master Project in a 32-page proposal. Much of the work of the preexisting committee was incorporated and although much had to be fleshed out, many of the previous participants were cautiously optimistic. The goals were specifically laid out: control dust; protect, create and enhance habitat; protect cultural resources; promote area-wide economic development; renewable energy exploration; create a flexible adaptive management plan; and reduce total lake-wide water use. The report included two pages of Public Use Studies with the NUVIS Landscape Architecture logo at the bottom. Even then, the installation was in the development stage.
Kiosk constructed for the NUVIS Owens Lake landscape project (T30-1). | Photo: Christopher Langley.
Other aesthetic documentation in the paper included Colors of the playa, Species Guilds (the birds) and Preferred Habitat Conditions for the six identified bird guilds. There were also four waterless dust control methods named: brine, gravel cover, non-uniform meandering ridges; and tillage. Many of the pieces of the final art land project were already identified there.
Cardoza and his team planned for their relatively small part of the entire lake project and drew from various sources of inspiration: Our NUVIS team had an abundance of inspiration, he said. From nature. we looked at how the wave patterns were left behind in the sand and how we could incorporate this into our design. We considered looking at the interesting forms we saw when looking at the salt crystals and salt grass under a microscope. We considered colors from the playa, and the local bird life.
Both the birds and historical perspective were used in developing the project. The snowy plover is a key inspiration for our design, he said. The birds are especially present in the plaza and shade areas at the center of the project. Historical photographs and images helped shape our concept as well as the Native American culture in the valley. Several locations were considered. The lake had been broken into several sections with unique challenges and solutions. Finally the area called T30-1 was chosen.
Concept drawing of the NUVIS Owens Lake landscape project (T30-1) for CDMSmith/LADWP.
In my opinion T30-1s location was perfect for providing a variety of dust mitigation measures, Cardoza explained. The blend of good soil conditions, topography, and water allowed us to be creative in how we met the habitat and dust mitigation requirements needed to satisfy LADWP.
The presentation documents show the central attraction. It is what has been named the plaza. The shade structure at the plaza is meant to be large in scale, Cardoza said, the purpose is to provide a reference point to visitors, a landmark of sorts. Cardoza uses the palette of natural colors that occur in the mineral planar surface of both the lake and the hills and mountains that frame it. Using these colors in various ways is significant to his vision. The selection of Corten steel, he said, was important for its variation in
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
In a live broadcast from the Reagan National Defense Forum, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher Kubasik joined Morgan Brennan on CNBCs Closing Bell: Overtime. Ku...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Introducing New Perks to Help You Get Even More from LinkedIn Premium Published on Dec 5, 2025 Categories: Company News, Product News
LinkedIn Corporate Co...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
Plaza shade structure constructed for the NUVIS Owens Lake landscape project (T30-1). | Photo: Christopher Langley. 
