Hospitality Retail Case Study

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Brea: A Living Wall Designed for Arrival, Brand Experience, and Everyday Hospitality

Installed in just three days, this custom living wall and planter environment transformed the exterior guest experience for Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in Brea, California with over 2,000 plants, integrated drainage strategy, and hospitality-focused biophilic design.

Creating a Hospitality Arrival Experience

Quick-service hospitality environments are increasingly expected to feel more experiential, memorable, and emotionally engaging. For this Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf location in Brea, California, the goal was to create an exterior environment that softened the architecture, elevated the customer arrival experience, and reinforced the brand’s connection to warmth, nature, and gathering.

Elevation Living Walls designed and installed a custom vertical garden system paired with integrated planter environments to transform the entry sequence into a living hospitality moment.

Construction

Installation

Finished Project

Built for Hospitality Durability

Unlike decorative green walls designed only for opening day photography, commercial hospitality environments require long-term planning around irrigation, drainage, root volume, maintenance access, and operational durability.

This project incorporated floating cache basins for water collection and drainage management, helping support healthier root conditions while protecting surrounding surfaces and improving long-term performance.

The living wall system was designed to establish quickly, mature over time, and remain maintainable within an active retail hospitality setting.

Beyond the Wall: Integrated Hospitality Planters

In addition to the living wall itself, the project included integrated architectural planter environments designed to support the overall hospitality atmosphere and soften the transition between architecture and landscape.

These planter systems helped establish scale, create visual layering, and extend the biophilic experience beyond the vertical surface alone.

Plant Selection, Texture, and Brand Warmth

Hospitality living walls succeed when they feel intentional rather than overly engineered. Plant variety, texture, layering, and density all contribute to how guests emotionally experience a space.

This installation utilized over 2,000 plants arranged to create softness, movement, texture variation, and immediate visual fullness across the wall surface.

Biophilic Retail Environments Continue to Grow

Across Southern California and beyond, hospitality and retail brands continue investing in experiential environments that create emotional connection, visual identity, and memorable customer experiences.

Living walls and integrated botanical systems are increasingly becoming part of that strategy — helping hospitality brands stand out while creating healthier, more welcoming spaces for guests.

Explore additional living wall case studies, learn more about our hospitality installations, or start a project consultation.