SAP Landscapes

SAP Landscapes carried out the landscape construction at Liffey Valley Shopping Centre when it was initially built and have maintained the grounds since this time.

Parking and access issues had become a concern for both customers and staff and the existing car park has recently undergone a significant upgrade to enhance safety, convenience, and sustainability.

SAP Landscapes carried out the new landscaping and continue to maintain this. Throughout the duration of the project, the shopping centre remained operational and accessible to the public, thanks to meticulous planning and collaboration between all shareholders. A strategic phasing approach was implemented, ensuring that only one car park was closed at a time while keeping the remaining three open. Tree and shrub planting activities were strategically scheduled out of season to align with the phasing plan and avoid any disruptions to project deadlines.

The previous landscaping predominantly consisted of hardy ground cover planting but has now transition to greater diversity of planting including grasses, herbaceous planting and multiple tree and shrub species. As a result, the maintenance requirements have intensified with high level of manual weed control and dead heading and pruning of herbaceous planting and perennials.

You may also notice that the design by Niall Montgomery & Partners, aligns the colour scheme of the planting with that of the car park signage – Green, Red, Yellow and Purple.

Given the high volumes of footfall through the car parks, formation of desire lines and trampling of planting has always been an issue. While this is still evident in areas, the use of informal grit paths through the planted areas has helped alleviate this issue.

Judges’ Comments: 

“An appealing landscape design obviously receiving consistent care where resilient planting is flourishing.”

“A complex planting scheme intertwined through the carparks of this extremely busy retail park make for very chellanging landscape maintenance. However, the scheme is maintained superbly and with care. It demonstrates maintenance that would be expected in a garden type scheme.”