Line for Blue Bottle Coffee at their Linden Alley Kiosk

Linden St is undergoing a welcoming transformation of what the designers are calling the birth of an outdoor living room, otherwise known as Linden Living Alley. The Blue Bottle coffee shop has drawn a crowd of people over the last few years that have had to assemble and enjoy their coffee along a narrow sidewalk. During peak coffee hours, especially on the weekend, these people spill over into Linden St in order to find refuge from the tight sidewalk conditions and to escape the long line. Sherwood Design Engineers have teamed up with Winslow Architecture to design a pedestrian oriented street that encapsulates the multi functionality of what a city street is about. This design integrates an isolated driving alley dedicated to one lane of traffic, including traffic calming and safety measures and transforming the remainder of the street corridor to landscaping and urban pedestrian space.

This project is scheduled for completion around October 1^st 2010 so go and enjoy a latte in a space dedicate to the people.

Architecture in the City hosted by AIA-SF will be sponsoring a tour led by David Winslow covering the various pedestrian alleys, including Linden Lane, throughout the city.

The conversion of city streets and alleys to pedestrian friendly zones has garnered some support and opposition. Check out the Socketsite discussion forum that has developed some popularity recently surrounding this topic and specially Linden Lane.

Davis Court August 26th

The Davis Court project is progressing nicely. According to Drew, Sherwood’s project manager, one infiltration system CU Structural Soil backfill is halfway completed. “CU Structural Soil is a type of soil that allows trees to grow underneath concrete without damaging the surface or surrounding area,” he says, “which if not used can cause major damage to sidewalks and other structures from tree roots.” The infiltration piping is being constructed now, to be followed by the structural soil and planter beds backfill. The remaining demolition is completed and site infrastructure is being installed. Stay tuned for more updates as work continues!

- Honey Bee colonies around the world are disappearing at alarming rates. Many people suspect this may be because of global warming or other warming trends. Check out this new documentary which dives into the question and mystery of Colony Collapse Disorder.

-A fashonista is blogging about her experience transforming old thrift store finds into chic modern pieces all for the sake of being green. Check out her “Julie & Julia” style blog here, where she daily updates each piece she transforms.

-E-waste is now one of the EPA’s top 4 priorities next to Global Warming, Reducing Exposure to Toxic Chemicals, Expanding Access to Clean Water, and Improving Air Quality. Read about the EPA’s international priorities here.

-The beginning of long term damage from the Gulf oil spill is starting to take effect. Oil droplets lining the ocean floor in the Gulf appear to be having a toxic effect on bacteria and phytoplankton, a photosynthetic microorganism that serves as a vital food for fish and other marine life.

-Imagine fueling your car and eating your toast with the same thing… Butter!

- Russian fires raise the question of radioactive fumes being emitted from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster sites over 24 years ago.

- Portugal is stepping up in the realm of clean energy, almost 45% of their energy comes from renewable sources. They also plan to close two power plants by 2014 and reduce use of the others.

- Developing a sustainable or green house may not be as green as you expected. Katherine Salant gets us thinking a little bit outside the box when it comes to sustainable construction.

- Scientists report massive coral bleaching occurring in Indonesia. 60% of the corals off the island of Sumatra are bleached due to global warming. To learn more about coral bleaching read about it here.

- California’s cool summer competes with the East Coast’s record highs. Enjoy today’s warm weather SF! It’s about time.

Is Back!! We’ve missed updating you with our weekly edition of the Green News You Can Use, so we’ve brought it back. As always, please feel free to give us some ideas and don’t be afraid to leave us a comment.

· BP has successfully plugged the Gulf of Mexico oil well through their “static kill” operation, but has also fired 10,000 cleanup employees.

· Can you spend a weekend without consuming oil? One organization is asking thousands of people around the country to take the pledge. Can you spend the weekend without buying makeup, clothes, or sporting goods, let alone not driving? Take the pledge here.

· New York, Chicago, and Vermont are following Portland’s footsteps in setting up colored bike lanes to promote biking in the city. View SF’s newest addition on Fell Street here.

· The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced today that there are now 6,132 farmers markets in the country, up 16 percent from last year. Find your local farmers market here.

· UN Climate Change Conference is taking place in Bonn Germany August 2^nd – 6^th. Follow updates here.

· The Plastiki lands in Sydney after a voyage across the pacific in a boat made entirely of plastic bottles.

· Mother Nature made a better sports drink? What we think you should know about the new coconut water craze.

· Would you swim the English Channel for environmental awareness? This woman is.

· Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Minnesota now get 10% of their electricity from wind.

· Worst floods on record kill thousands in Pakistan.

· Solar power initiatives are on the rise.

· Green LEED certified correctional facilities are becoming more popular in the US as HOK designs the newest in Atlanta.

· The Galapagos Islands have been removed from the endangered species list.

· According to a recent study, 80% of rainforests — which hold a full half of the world’s plant and animal species — stand to be destroyed by climate change starting now.

In urban areas most people can’t imagine, that there was once, or still is a stream underneath them. Many municipal urban planners are bringing these streams “to light,” by a process called daylighting. This includes bringing a stream to light, from underground, often by integrating storm water management and ecosystems. Daylighting can have many benefits, including ecological, economic, and social. We wrote about a daylighting project in Seoul, South Korea about a year ago. Since then daylighting has gotten exposure from cities like Seattle, Berkeley, Portland, and our very own San Francisco. Most of these streams and creeks, which have not been visible since the 1800’s are now viewable as sewers and pipes transformed underground in order to make room for urban development. With global warming on the rise, many cities cannot handle the pressure of rising stormwater runoff, often backing up water treatment plants, which directly affects the entire city. Urban planners are turning to daylighting as a resource to relieve pressure from stormwater runoff as well as connecting people with their water resources.

Seoul Stream Daylighted and Turned Into a Beautiful Public Space

Seoul’s landmark daylighting project involved tearing down a major divisive freeway through the heart of the city and replacing in, instead of with another vehicular transportation network, with an enhancement of the natural environment, a community amenity, and a stormwater management improvement.

Thornton Creek in North Seattle has just recently been daylighted in collaboration with a mixed-use, residential, commercial, and office, development adjacent to the Northgate Mall.

While daylighting seems like an extremely attractive option for urban water system improvements, there are also many issues related to daylighting. One of our engineer’s Adam writes, “While it’s easy to tout the benefits of daylighting from an academic or professional perspective, American municipalities often get caught up on fiscal constraints, searching for exaggerated untruths to defend inaction. Benefits vary depending on the location and scale of the drainage network, what habitats are associated with the stream, the local climate conditions, existing stormwater management conditions and infrastructure, and the scope of the daylighting project.”

Recently San Francisco has pondered upon the thought of using daylighting throughout the city, which would relive stormwater runoff pressures and would expose watersheds to the public. Show your support for the use of daylighting in San Francisco by attending the next community meeting here.

August 3rd 2010

Here you can see that there have been two big holes dug approximately 2,00 square feet by 4 feet deep. This is the future location of the planter bays. Also, this area that was excavated has exposed some underground utilities that are to be relocated.  You can see the plans below for a more detailed vision.

Davis Street between Jackson and Washington streets in downtown San Francisco is currently undergoing a renovation. This urban space which is privately owned has traditionally been used as a corridor for pedestrians traveling to and from Market St and the downtown area to the waterfront properties. This space is also the entrance to the parking structure for the Gateway living complex as well as a drop off for a restaurant. This combination of private and public use has created an opportunity to transform this site from a difficult and hazardous experience to a new open urban plaza. The design team of RHAA landscape architects and planners, Endres Ware structural engineers, Ned Kahn artist, CMS fountain specialist, Pankow Construction and Sherwood Design Engineers were challenged by the property owner to develop a space that invites pedestrians, allows for integrated vehicular traffic and creates a space for the public and private.

The site improvements will include a relatively flat seamless pedestrian friendly plaza space, a unique stormwater collection, conveyance, treatment and groundwater infiltration system integrated into the tree planting zones and an art feature to highlight the uniqueness of the space. The stormwater system was designed to meet LEED credit 6.1 as dictated by the new San Francisco Stormwater Guidelines for Combined Sewer Areas recently adopted by the city. The runoff from the site will be separated into four microsheds, with the two larger sheds discharged into sequential hydraulically connected planter beds that will receive the stormwater, treat through plantings and amended structural soil and then infiltrate into the favorable sandy soil below the site. This system was designed to handle at least a 2 year 24 hour storm event.

We plan to upload daily photos of the progress of this project. At completion we hope to have a flip-book of the construction of this project! We hope you will follow along, and if you pass by the site,  email us your pictures! (press@sherwoodengineers.com)

July 30th 2010

July 28th 2010

July 27th 2010

July 22nd, 2010

July 21st 2010

July 20th 2010

July 16th 2010

July 13th 2010

Today, a booming economy should be looked at as a savior. But for China, it’s also a burden. That’s because more factories, people, agriculture, and entertainment all require extreme uses of water.

Sherwood Design Engineers hopes to combat this problem within our city-scale project in Langfang, located in Northern China.  We have developed a master plan for a balanced water cycle, which would improve water quality, mitigate further aquifer depletion, and regenerate wildlife habitat in the Northern China Plain. We hope that this plan will set the precedent for all cities throughout China.

Sherwood has recommended that the Northern China Plain eliminate imported water from the South-North Water Diversion Project (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7864390.stm). This project includes eastern, central and western routes that will divert water from China’s Yangtze River to the parched north.  There are many issues related to this plan, including financial and environmental.  A few of these problems are tremendous water shortage in the form of droughts as well as sinking due to over pumping from its aquifers. The new balanced water cycle plan would reduce aquifer pumping and would allow for groundwater to recharge from natural infiltration, recycled water, and diverted peak storm flows.

You can read about China’s water shortages here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/15/AR2010031503564.html

Last week one of our Engineers performed the final punch list walk through for the first phase of the Presidio Sustainability Center in San Francisco, which you may remember reading about here. This facility will be the home of the Seedhouse and Nursery Center, which will ensure the survival of California’s native plants in the Presidio and the Golden Gate National Parks. The center will be used for collection, incubation, germination, and growing of California’s native plants. California has up to 5,800 native plants and most are in rapid decline due to pressures from urban sprawl, agriculture, overgrazing, recreation impacts, and invasive non-native species. A majority of these plants are endemic to California, meaning they can only survive in California’s climate. The Seedhouse and Nursery Center is the first phase of completed work which is part of a planned Sustainability and Stewardship Center. This facility should be in full operation within two weeks, after obtaining an occupancy permit. Below is a rendering that we developed of the future build-out conditions and pictures taken on-site. Hopefully you can see the resemblances between the build and planned design.

Presidio Nursery House

Rendering of Presidio Seedhouse and Nursery Center