Rendering of the garden courtesy of Studio One Eleven.

This past May saw Long Beach’s Studio One Eleven representing Long Beach in our sister city of Qingdao, China, by way of a stunning LB-inspired garden design at the 2014 International Horticultural Exposition.

The garden will remain on display through October 25 of this year, but for those unable to make it to China on short notice, the Long Beach-Qingdao Association (LBQA) is inviting the public to attend a special cocktail hour that will look at the garden through photos, video, and lectures.

The International Horticultural Exposition is not a run-of-the-mill garden show, but rather a massive international event, seen by some 12M visitors.

405 acres of presentation space are provided at Qingdao, and Studio One Eleven’s own design attempted to reflect its own aesthetic while adhering to the expo’s theme, “From the earth, for the earth.”

“Our design reflects the human experience in relationship to the earth,” said Kirk Keller, Senior Designer and leader of the landscape architecture group within Studio One Eleven at P+R Architects. “The garden allows for a symbiotic relationship with people: interacting and engaging in the outdoors as an extension of their living space. The indoor/outdoor relationship, particularly in our climate, is fluid with no line of demarcation between the two. Thus, people intermingle in their indoor living spaces as they do in the outdoors. The garden justly becomes another room for people to inhabit.”

Working with P+R’s Shanghai offices, Keller offered up a garden design that is distinctly Studio One Eleven: clean, straight lines, a ton of native species, and even better, five garden “zones” that represent significant periods of Long Beach history.

The gazebo-like arboretum, for example, harkens to the Craftsmen love throughout Long Beach’s historical neighborhoods like Rose Park and Wilmore with its “falling rock” pillar bottoms. The center of the garden highlights Long Beach’s other love—mid-century modernism—which brings forth the architectural ideals of Edward Killingsworth and Cliff May.

The LBQA’s “Adventures at Qingdao’s Horticulture Expo 2014″ will be hosted at the Executive Dining Room at the Keesal Young & Logan Law Office, located at 400 Oceangate. Tickets are $15 for LBQA members and $20 non-members. RSVP to Candace Walsh at 562-346-7082 or email at [email protected].