Sherwood Design Engineers : Projects

Projects


		Tenaya Lake - Yosemite, California Within the pristine landscape of Yosemite National Park lies Tenaya Lake, a magnificent High Sierra lake surrounded by granite domes, lodgepole forests, and Yosemite's vast wilderness. Sherwood Design Engineers was selected to work with Mithun and the National Park to master plan and engineer this ecologically sensitive site in order to address obstacles associated with visitor use, visitor safety, and resource degradation. Sherwood has completed site analysis, including extensive work in GIS, and site plan schematics for the parking facilities, drainage facilities, and the trail network. Sherwood anticipates moving into construction documentation in late 2010.

Image credit: Gensler		The Preserve - Stockton, California In California's Central Valley, Sherwood Design Engineers teamed with Gensler's urban planning group and SWA's landscape architects to find a creative way to get a stalled large-scale greenfield development back on track. The property owner / developer while familiar with the development world in California was faced with a new challenge as a result of a lawsuit that encumbered the project with the challenge of meeting the Ahwahnee principles among other stipulations. The Ahwahnee Principles represent a set of community principles based on new and emerging ideas in community design and planning that include the provision encouraging "Communities [to] provide for the efficient use of water through the use of natural drainage, drought tolerant landscaping, and recycling."

		Wilderness Lake - Eureka, Montana Deep within the Montana woodlands lies the pristine 20-acre Wilderness Lake. Working in collaboration with Alex Horne Associates, Sherwood developed a comprehensive Lake Management Plan to restore, protect, and enhance the lake and surrounding ecosystems. Extensive analysis was performed in order to improve the water quality of the lake while taking into consideration the impact on wildlife, the community, recreation, and overall aesthetics of the region. In addition, a unique plan was included to use the lake for nearby golf course irrigation as well as stormwater detention for major storm events.

Image credit: Hart Howerton		Palmetto Bluff - Bluffton, South Carolina Palmetto Bluff is a 20,000 acre project set on a sea island with expansive frontage on the May, Cooper, and New Rivers. A former barrier island hunting preserve, the project’s guiding principle is to preserve and protect one of America’s treasured landscapes. Working with Hart Howerton and Crescent/Duke Energy, Sherwood worked to develop street and drainage standards for the Village at Palmetto Bluff. This first phase of the project set the standard for the ongoing project in terms of planning and quality. The Village’s existing setting, context, and landscape was the driving force behind the design of buildings, plantings, roads, driveways, and outdoor improvements. Drainage requirements were set to focus on minimizing impacts to the site and landscape, protecting water quality, minimizing removal of the existing forest, and promoting the continued use of natural drainage systems.

Image credit: Moule & Polyzoides		Paso Robles Specific Plan - Paso Robles, California Sherwood Design Engineers worked with Moule & Polyzoides to develop a Specific Plan for the City of El Paso de Robles to improve transportation systems and to make the town more sustainable by reducing carbon emissions and water use. Our efforts included improving street design to increase walkability, increasing the efficiency of the town's stormwater system, as well as measures to restore the local river and improve the health of the city's watershed. At the heart of our plan is the call to create an "urban creek" by daylighting a stream near the town center. By making the living stream a part of the street system, we improve air quality, calm traffic, provide access to nature, and develop a shaded green zone in the town center that will spur community and economic development.

Image credit: Page & Turnbull		Atchison Village - Richmond, California Working closely with Page & Turnbull's historic preservation architects, Sherwood performed a sustainable civil infrastructure study for the post-war community of Atchison Village, which is being assessed as part of a Historic Structures Report for the City of Richmond and the National Park Service. We developed site-specific sustainable infrastructure concepts to protect and improve the functionality of built infrastructure in this historic community. Stormwater management was a particular focus due to localized flooding plaguing the neighborhood during and after heavy rainfall events.

Image credit: Starr Whitehouse		Harlem River Promenade - New York City, New York At the Harlem River Promenade, one of the few parcels of land along the Harlem River that has actual river access, Sherwood was selected with a group of designers to perform a feasibility study and determine alternatives for development of a public program. The design process included multiple meetings with a steering committee composed of representatives of local government, community groups and public agencies, as well as multiple public meetings to present design concepts and receive feedback from the community. Sherwood was responsible for the infrastructure planning, which entailed a detailed existing conditions study and identification of infrastructure implications of alternative concepts throughout the design process, as well as conceptual design of stormwater management on site.

Image credit: Gensler		Tianjin Eco-City Neighborhood - Tianjin, China In northeast China, 60 miles south of Beijing, Sherwood performed green infrastructure and sustainable site design services for a 350 unit residential community in the city of Tianjin. The community is situated on 45 acres of land abutting an existing golf course and the Jiyun River. Here Sherwood performed high performance site design engineering related to layout, materials, grading, drainage, and utilities. The heavily depleted aquifer and saline soils in this area require a particular focus on methods for water conservation and reuse. To this end, Sherwood identified opportunities to pursue these strategies and develop a detailed water balance to quantify their benefits. The stormwater management strategy is heavily focused on water storage and reuse as well as an opportunity for landscape and ecological enhancement.