The City of Irvine City Hall undertook major remodels and expansions of its office spaces, primarily between 2024 and 2025. During this period, Urban Arena’s architects and planners reimagined the interior office spaces, with a focus on the 2nd and 3rd floors.
Growing Roots presents a case study of the biophilic design techniques used in this project, the challenges during the remodel, the solutions implemented, and the end results.
City of Irvine City Hall’s Initial Vision
The vision for Irvine City Hall was a vibrant and welcoming environment for staff and visitors alike. The renovated areas feature vibrant colors, unique wall murals, and thoughtfully selected design elements and plants that reflect Irvine’s character.
Challenges Faced During the Remodel
Balancing Relocation and Design:
Keeping Workspaces Inviting Through Every Phase of a Major Remodel
Relocating all employees to temporary offices enhanced with plants and moss walls to maintain a pleasant environment for staff.
As employees returned, we repurposed those plants in the newly remodeled offices and added many more. It was a challenge to make each space pleasant with every move.
Solutions
Growing Roots collaborated with the designers and planners to incorporate numerous biophilic elements into its new spaces. We contributed by sourcing and installing plants, containers and moss walls, while the designers enhanced the environment with wood accents and natural imagery, colors, wallpapers, and graphics. They also added layered carpets for texture and softness.
With so many employees, floor space is tight. A functional storage unit served as a divider, storage, and a plant container on top. This allowed us to add plants throughout the offices at City of Irvine City Hall — more than 600 plants! (And yes, we provide maintenance services for their plants.)
Design Process and Plant Selection
At Growing Roots, our design process includes choosing appropriate plants and containers. We selected a wide variety of plants for the City of Irvine City Hall that would provide attractive, professional-looking foliage. With over 600 plants to maintain, the collection requires relatively low maintenance to keep them healthy and looking their best. Together, the collection softens the building’s architecture, enhances the sense of calm in busy public areas, and brings a consistent touch of greenery to offices, corridors, and meeting rooms throughout the City of Irvine City Hall.
Plant selections for this project include, among others:
Results and Benefits
The remodeled City of Irvine City Hall now feels noticeably more welcoming, cohesive, and human-centered. Biophilic elements transformed what was once a conventional municipal office environment. Staff and visitors benefit from a more relaxed and welcoming environment, with lush greenery offering visual breaks from screens, hard surfaces, and long corridors.
Functionally, the plant program is designed to be both scalable and sustainable. All plants are strategically placed to work with existing light levels, traffic patterns, and furniture layouts, so they enhance rather than compete with daily operations. The result is a healthier-feeling workplace that supports focus and well-being while reinforcing the City if Irvine’s commitment to a high-quality civic environment. With ongoing professional indoor maintenance, the plants remain a long-term asset that can grow and adapt as their needs evolve.
Reflecting on the Project’s Success
The City of Irvine City Hall project demonstrates how thoughtful biophilic design can transform a complex, phased remodel into an opportunity to steadily improve the workplace experience. By integrating plants and natural elements from the earliest temporary spaces through to the final renovated offices, the City of Irvine was able to support staff well-being throughout construction rather than waiting for a “finished” environment at the end. Reusing and expanding the plant collection at each stage also underscored the City’s commitment to sustainability and smart resource use.
Collaboration was central to the project’s success. Growing Roots, Urban Arena, and the City’s team worked closely to align aesthetics, functionality, plant installation, and keeping the project on schedule. The result is not only a visually refreshed City Hall, but a living, adaptable indoor plant program that can continue to grow with the organization.
The lessons from this project, such as planning for flexibility, prioritizing user experience during construction, and treating greenery as core infrastructure rather than decoration, inform how we approach other large, public-sector workplaces.
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