A Partnership with the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden

This article is written by Matt Caliguire, Principal at Allen Construction, whose work reflects a deep commitment to craftsmanship, community, and thoughtful building. Drawing from both professional expertise and personal connection, Matt shares the story behind Allen Construction’s contribution to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s Backcountry project — a small structure with a meaningful purpose.

Several years ago, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden renovated a significant portion of its Mission Canyon property, designating the area as “The Backcountry.” The project was conceived as an invitation for the community—particularly families with children—to engage with the landscape through outdoor play. Central to this vision is a collection of small nature playhouses, or “Casitas,” located along the trail system and designed and built by community members through a public call for proposals. As longtime members of the Garden whose children spent their early years on these trails, contributing to this effort felt both personal and appropriate.

In the spring of 2025, the design concept came together quickly. I was reminded of Gnomes by Wil Huygen and illustrated by Rien Poortvliet, a formative childhood book presented as a folkloric field journal. The idea of creating a gnome home felt immediate and fitting.

In the context of the recent Los Angeles fires, the project also became an opportunity to reflect on resilience, home hardening, and the broader responsibility of builders to their communities.

The proposal is guided by three primary objectives:

1. To create a whimsical yet thoughtfully designed playhouse for children to encounter along the canyon trails.

2. To imagine a dwelling for gnomes—figures in folklore associated with stewardship of the forest and skilled craftsmanship, serving as an apt metaphor for the Allen Construction team.

3. To design a fire-ready structure that incorporates subtle educational elements encouraging visitors to consider resilience strategies in their own homes.

The end result is a whimsical yet purposeful gnome “Casita” that blends imagination, craftsmanship, and fire-conscious design, inviting children to explore, families to linger, and the broader community to reflect on resilience, stewardship, and the enduring meaning of home. It also became a true team effort, with many Allen Construction team members contributing their time and talents, and clearly having fun putting their skills to work in service of the Garden and the community.