Cosumnes River Elementary School - a story about water

Construction has begun for this 19-acre school site located along the Cosumnes River in Sloughhouse, Ca. Connecting to local water utilities was not an option in this rural area and in order to handle water needs, the school was designed to include a large well, 750,000 gallon water storage tank and a wastewater treatment facility. In this unique case, the secondary-treated wastewater was used to irrigate 3 surrounding acres of foraging habitat for Swainson's hawk mitigation. The plant species selection was a crucial part of the design of this habitat, which would receive a high volume of water during the school year and almost none during the summer months (summer dormancy). In order to serve as a habitat for the endangered Swainson's hawk, the plant species needed to be low-growing to allow ground foraging and include abundant trees for nesting. Native oaks and redbuds were included, along with a blend of California native grasses including Festuca rubra, Nassella pulchra and Bromus carinatus that were selected to not only provide habitat, but to also filter out wastewater pollutants before entering the Cosumnes River Watershed. Also unique to the project is the successful relocation of a 36" dia. heritage Valley Oak from the original location high on a hill, to the new location over 40' lower in elevation. Design team members include John Suesens and Marq Truscott.

Peninsula Station

This is a very exciting project in San Mateo with the Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition. This group has an outstanding record of providing safe, livable affordable housing. Check out their mission statement, and projects. We have enjoyed working with the staff at Mid-Peninsula, and the project design team led by Jon Worden Architects.

This project will have some very interesting outdoor rooms for the residents--with 3 stories over underground parking. We worked with the City of San Mateo and the 'Build It Green' guidelines, which was particularly challenging given that all of the landscape is on podium. Landscape features are reminiscent of Hundertwasser, the Austrian artist.

Redwood Credit Union in Santa Rosa

The new headquarters for RCU is a LEED certified project, with a beautiful water-conserving landscape. Quadriga's team of Tim Skinner and Bill Mastick worked with the Credit Union group to create this architecturally inspired design. Located on Cleveland Avenue, north of Steele Lane.

UC Davis Native American Memorial

Construction of the 'Reflective Area' was completed last month on the UC Davis campus. This installation is the first of 11 on- campus memorials planned to honor the Patwin Tribe and other Native Americans. Our Quadriga design team: Erica Drew, Shannon Sobeck and Jane Marx are extremely pleased to see this project come to life. We were honored to work with the Patwin Tribe, the University, and Far Western Archeological to create a meaningful remembrance to the people who originally inhabited the campus.

The Reflective Area is accessible, located along the Arboretum Waterway, across the path from King Hall. There is a nice view of it from the Mrak Hall Drive bridge.