The Washington
Location: Bend, OR
Project Partners
Architect: Darren Thomas Architecture + Planning
Builder: Bend Trend
Landscape Contractor: Landscape Elements
Photography: Cheryl McIntosh
The Washington stands as a touchstone project for SZABO Landscape Architecture, demonstrating how thoughtful site planning and landscape design can elevate a local restaurant into a true neighborhood gathering place.
The Washington is one of SZABO Landscape Architecture’s earliest commercial projects in Bend, activating a prominent corner in NorthWest Crossing anchored by Washington Dining & Cocktails. From the outset, the design ties the new building into existing streets, sidewalks, and plaza networks so arriving on foot feels as natural as pulling into the parking lot.
SZABO Landscape Architecture shaped the overall site layout from pedestrian circulation, parking configuration, terracing, and hardscape, to respond to the sloping corner and connect seamlessly with the surrounding urban framework. Primary walks, steps, and ramps guide people toward the restaurant entries, while layered planting beds soften building edges and create a comfortable, human‑scaled approach.
On the busy roundabout corner, the patio is conceived as an outdoor room that feels intimate and protected even with traffic nearby, using low concrete walls, hedges, and dense planting to screen views and buffer sound. Built‑in seating, fire features, and generous planters carve the patio into a series of smaller zones so guests can gather around a fire, sit along the rail, or tuck into planting, all while maintaining visual connection to the neighborhood.
The planting and irrigation design relies on a resilient Central Oregon palette that delivers year‑round texture and seasonal color, pairing grasses, flowering perennials, and evergreens with the restaurant’s warm timber architecture. Nearly a decade later, these plantings have matured into lush, continuous bands that knit the building to the sidewalk, strengthen the buffer to the roundabout, and give the corner the character of an established district rather than a newer infill site.
