Great Public Places in America: Cesar Chavez Plaza Recognized

The American Planning Association has recently designated Cesar Chavez Plaza one of 10 Great Public Spaces in America for 2012, stating: One of the oldest parks in California, Cesar Chavez Plaza has shaped downtown Sacramento's development since 1849. At that time, city founder John Sutter, Jr. dedicated 10 "public squares" for "the public use of the inhabitants of the city." Nine of the 10 remain in use today, and Cesar Chavez Plaza is one of them. One hundred sixty-five years of city planning have preserved the space with its cross-axial walkways, central fountain, and views of the historic civic skyline. 

Quadriga was the prime consultant involved in the initial programming and public outreach for this downtown street/plaza project, and spearheaded the subsequent development of preliminary design alternatives and construction documents for the renovation of this historic plaza, located at the steps of City Hall.  Funded by revenues provided in association with the development of the new California Environmental Protection Agency Building, Quadriga prepared design development and construction documents, and provided construction administration services for this civic project. Construction was completed in June of 2000.

Over a decade after the renovation, Cesar Chavez plaza is recognized as a part of the 'heart' of downtown Sacramento, home to a vibrant Farmer's Market and very popular summertime 'Concert in the Park' series. We are pleased to have been a part of creating this Community gem. 

The news was also featured in the Sacramento Bee 'Cesar Chavez is officially a great public space'

Quadriga - part of team sponsoring Amgen start in Santa Rosa

This Sunday, May 13th Santa Rosa will host the start of the Amgen Tour of California. Quadriga is excited to be a sponsor of this premier event with the Museum on the Square Project Team including: Wright Contracting, TLCD Architecture, Summit Engineering, Quadriga Landscape Architecture and Planning, Inc., MKM Structural Engineers, and Gilleran Energy Management.

Friends and colleagues are invited to join us at the VIP Spectator Tent (located at 5th Street and Mendocino Avenue) on May 13th between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm.

Gingerbread House Competition Recap

To get in the holiday spirit this year, Lea and I entered the Gingerbread House Competition sponsored by AIA Central Valley and Sacramento Self Help Housing. As an inaugural competition to raise funds for Sacramento Self Help Housing, the Gingerbread House competition was open to everyone; professionals, the public at large and children. We anticipated heavy competition and wanted to create a “house” that reflects what landscape architects do. We waffled back and forth on various themes but eventually settled on the idea of a tree house as multi-family housing. I don’t want to give you the idea that landscape architects only work with trees but really, what could be better than a tree house?

A couple days before the submittal deadline, Lea and I got together at her house to build the tree house (i.e., drink wine). Once we realized gingerbread wouldn’t meet our structural requirements, we whipped up a batch of rice crispy treats- just like cake boss! Lea, Sam (Lea’s husband) and I worked on the tree for two nights, creating candy critters, meringue mushrooms and mixing up brown frosting and creating frosting leaves. The Treehouse lived in the fridge and we hoped it would all stay together through the delivery and judging.

The night of the judging we got to see our competition: An amazing Victorian house and a very creative dome house done by a local structural engineer from Point 2 structural engineers. The entrants in the other categories all did some fun and creative work. It was great to see the edible creativity. We didn’t win first place but we had a great time putting the tree together and it was wonderful to meet some great people who do so much for our community. Next Year we will hold nothing back!
-By Christine Talbot