- Excelsior Award
- Best entry by a first year member of CLCA
- Maniglia Landscape Services Inc.
- Project Name: NVIDIA Corp.
- Award Sponsor: Ewing Irrigation Products
From the July-August 2010 issue of California Landscaping magazine:
Who won: Maniglia Landscape Services, Inc., a 33-year-old installation and maintenance firm headquartered in San Jose that serves clients in the San Francisco Bay Area and throughout the Silicon Valley. About 98 percent of the business is commercial. Maniglia has 80-plus employees in several divisions, including general maintenance, commercial installation, tree care and commercial water features.
For what project? Installation and maintenance of 140,000 square feet of landscape surrounding the headquarters of NVIDIA Corp. in Santa Clara. Maniglia maintains turf areas, hundreds of trees, boxwood hedges, planting beds and a large water feature.
Who was the landscape architect? Paul Lettieri, asla, The Guzzardo Partner-ship, Inc., San Francisco.
Who’s who at Maniglia Landscape Services: Max Ornelas is owner and president; Leo Leonard Maniglia is owner and vice president. Miguel Medina is general manager. Martha Rodriguez is assisting manager field operations, and Letty Rios is accountant/contracts administrator.
Who’s who on this project: Javier Sanchez is onsite supervisor; irrigation technician is Ismael Garcia.
What is Maniglia Landscape Services known for? “We are often complimented on our quality service and on the quality of our customer service,” Ornelas says. “When we get a call from our customers, we move on things quickly.” Rodriquez adds: “Our projects really speak for themselves.”
What do these clients expect? “Curb appeal is very important,” Ornelas says. “They emphasize that everything has to look as good as possible at all times, and they are taking a hard look at maintaining and/or improving the eco-system of their landscape, including water and pest management.”
What is Maniglia’s scope of maintenance on this job? Seasonal color changes three times a year, shrub ground cover, tree replacement, gopher, pest and disease preventive control for turf and shrubs and ground cover, turf aeration to improve water management and turf health, irrigation repairs, mulching (using recycled wood chips), fertilizing, pre- and post emergent weed control, water feature maintenance, tree trimming and inspection for tree diseases and pests.
What was included in the installation? A paver walkway to the parking lot, about an acre of turf, and the planting of hundreds of flowering trees. Perennial beds were planted with Ajuga reptans, bicopa, camellia, fuschia and rosemary, among others.
What about trees? Evergreen pears, crape myrtles, sycamores, Chinese hackberry, tristania, flowering pears, white birches, callery pears and flowering plums.
How long did the installation take? Six to 10 months.
What are some of the project’s ‘Wow’ features? Everyone entering the building sees pots of color at the entrance. “Even given everybody’s budget issues, today, we make sure those are always looking as pretty as possible. … We try to give them a big splash.”
Anything else? “The turf,” Ornelas says. “It’s a cool-season, double-dwarf fescue that’s looking really beautiful.”
What challenges do you face? “Times are tough so we have to be as competitive and efficient as possible,” Ornelas says. “We have to do high quality service for a competitive price. … I think there are over 100 crape myrtles, alone, so we spray to prevent powdery mildew. If we don’t stay on top of that (prior to the buds setting) the flowers aren’t going to look good, and we can’t have that. After the bloom, in mid-summer, we go in and prune and clip off the old blooms. … And, of course, we have to stay on a good fertilization program for the turf.”
What’s your approach to water management? “The irrigation system is automated and pop-up spray, so we do periodic inspections of the system. We work hand-in-hand with NVIDIA’s Martin Delgado, and talk to him at least once a month to make sure we are not wasting any water. In spring and summer, we talk to him a lot more.”
Have you learned anything on this job that could serve as a takeaway for your fellow landscapers? “We’ve been in this business for a long time, and we know we want to keep our customers happy. You want to talk to your contacts. If you keep communicating, things will work out. With NVIDIA, they will often have functions and activities for their employees during the summer, so we work closely with Martin Delgado, their facilities manager, so we can react to any issue right away and keep our customer happy.”
