Herman Miller Factory
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates
Cherokee County, Georgia
1997-2001
Photos by Anton Rocz, Tony Gale

The Herman Miller furniture manufacturing and assembly plant is situated on a 70-acre site in rural Georgia. The client required parking for 550 cars and 120 semi-trailers - a total area of 10 acres. Runoff from the parking surfaces, the roadway, and the roof of the 330,000 square-foot facility would have had a devastating impact on the surrounding fragile creek ecosystems. MVVA determined that treating and slowly releasing the massive runoff in the landscape must become an essential priority for the project.

By integrating ecology into acres of hardscape in an honest, elegant manner, this project creates a new model for low-cost, low-maintenance, environmentally sound factory landscapes. This model could be applied with equal success in suburban and urban areas and demonstrates how landscape architects can take a lead in linking effective hydrological management with good design.