Celebrating the Grand Opening! / Fallon Sports Complex Phase 2

The City of Dublin celebrated the Grand Opening of Fallon Sports Complex Phase 2 on March 24 during on and off rain showers. The $14 million development, which began in 2013, includes: a 90’ lighted natural turf baseball diamond, two lighted synthetic turf soccer fields, a shaded group picnic and BBQ area, four lighted bocce ball courts, an adventure playground, and custom furnishings throughout. Children immediately gravitated to the playground this first day.

Although the baseball game was rained out, the rain of course contributes positively to the new phase in other ways. Vegetation will grow to provide aesthetic, ecological, and hydrological features to the sports complex. Bio-basins are planted with over a dozen species of native plants, and include educational signage about the role of a bio-basin in the water cycle, and the pollinators and bloom periods associated with specific native plants.

In just a few months since plant installation, some ornamental grasses, especially Muhlenbergia rigens (Deergrass) and Deschampsia cespitosa (Tufted Hairgrass), already provide significant volume to the new park features. These spaces will continue to fill in adjacent to the picnic and play areas, and at the base of the artist Heath Satow’s “Elatus,” the park’s iconic 32’ tall stainless steel statue.

Carducci Associates has designed a sports complex that includes the thoughtfully-constructed wildness of a true park. On a recent walk through Fallon’s Phase 1, where our office’s planting design has had 10 years to grow in, this unique pairing of landscapes has matured. Baccharis pilularis, Salix lasiolepis, Platanus racemosa and Salvia ‘Pozo Blue’ shade and frame the enduring brightness of synthetic turf, the sharp geometry of adjacent basketball courts, and running paths. The playful contrast between maintenance and wildness, synthetic and natural, continues in Phase 2. Concentric mow pattern rings a baseball pitcher’s mound that echoes Dublin’s hills visible in the distance.

Instances of this balance will increase as the park ages. The third and final phase will complete the picture our office has been involved with since the development of master plan beginning in 2004. The final phase of the 60 acre park will introduce two additional Little League baseball fields, two additional softball fields, additional group picnic and play areas, and the completion of the BMX facility. Fallon Sports Complex provides an intriguing case study for the ability of a traditionally highly maintained and synthetic sports complex to provide an ecological and hydrological partner to broader development patterns taking shape throughout the City of Dublin.

Grand Opening! / Fallon Sports Park Phase II

This month, Carducci Associates celebrates the opening of Phase II of the City of Dublin’s Fallon Sports Park! The Grand Opening, on March 24, represents a significant milestone since the office and the city previously celebrated the Grand Opening of Phase I in 2010. Since 2012, Carducci Associates has developed a design for Phase II that balances the park’s athletic, educational, and environmental features.

In other news, earlier this month, the office celebrated along with the City of Berkeley its renovation of the Gilman Fields (formally known as the Tom Bates Regional Sports Complex), a project reviewed in recent blog posts.

The Completion of Emerald Glen Park / “The Wave” Aquatics Center Opens Memorial Day Weekend

Carducci Associates has worked on a large variety of project types and scales throughout California. Some of our designs are completed and built within months, while others are implemented in phases over many years. We are excited to announce that we have reached the end of a long journey in the city of Dublin, California: the completion of Emerald Glen Park’s final phase and the grand opening of “The Wave” aquatics complex.

Emerald Glen Park is a 48-acre park in the heart of Dublin, dubbed “The New American Backyard.” Our firm’s team, Principals Bill Fee and Vince Lattanzio, Associate Principals Jin Kim and Jamie Beckman, Senior Associate Alvin Tang, and Associate Lee Streitz (bios here), has had the privilege of designing and overseeing the construction of several parks in the city, including the last three of Emerald Glen Park’s four phases.

Phase Two (2001-2004) introduced a grand entry with a dramatic water feature, welcome plaza, and centerpiece for public art. A new connection on the southern edge invited Dublin residents and visitors to their new park.

The park expanded during Phase Three (2003-2006), where we designed and directed the construction of group picnic areas, a children’s playground, restroom facilities, a cricket pitch, and two large soccer fields. Upon completion of this phase, two-thirds of the park transformed into public open space. The park began to come alive as the community embraced the park and made use of every corner.

When funding became available, the City once again hired Carducci Associates to design the final phase of the park’s master plan: the central plaza, amphitheater, and outdoor aquatic recreation facility. Our partner, Dahlin Group, served as the prime-architect to oversee the project and design the iconic wave-shaped community building and natatorium. Our other design partner, The Aquatic Design Group, provided expertise in the development of pools, slides and water-play throughout the site.

The result of the team’s collaboration was the “The Wave” at Emerald Glen Park, a boardwalk-inspired, public aquatics center that spans 31,000 square-feet of park space. The $43M facility accommodates 1,400 people and features three pools, six water slides and a children’s play pool. In addition to water play, the picnic areas, group cabanas, fire-pits, and outdoor ping-pong tables create a place one can visit often and experience something new each time.

A project of this scale is not completed overnight; we began preliminary designs for the final phase over four years ago. Pencil sketches turned into hand-rendered drawings, which then were revised and massaged using computer aided drafting and 3D modeling. After many years of design, followed by over a year of construction administration, The Wave had its official ribbon-cutting ceremony last week and will open to the public on Memorial Day Weekend. Grab your swimsuit and come ride The Wave in Dublin, CA, Carducci Associates’ latest built project.

View the project page here.

Alameda High School Breaks Ground

Occasionally, we get the opportunity to work on a project that is interesting not only for its site conditions and context, but also for its highly personal connection to our own history. Philip Dinh, Associate, who attended Alameda High School, says, “This was a place that I spent four of my favorite years, attending classes [and] creating memories with friends. Not many people get to say they were part of a team to help redesign their high school, and I am proud to be able to say that!”

Carducci Associates is part of the team, working with project architect Quattrocchi Kwok Architects, that is restoring Alameda High School’s 1924 neoclassical campus to its former glory. Renovations to this registered Historic Landmark will deftly weave 21st century classrooms into the fabric of this remarkable building. At the April 24th ground breaking ceremony, Carducci Associates was recognized by Alameda Mayor Trish Spencer, and Alameda Unified School District Superintendent Sean McPhetridge, for our work in designing improvements consistent with both the historic site and future-forward sustainability goals of the state, city, and district.

Philip and Wesley Bexton, Associate Principal, (bios here) coordinated work with the district, architectural team, the City of Alameda, and East Bay Municipal Utility District (commonly known as East Bay MUD) to modernize the landscaped frontage, and maintain the historic character of the site, in full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and with the State of California’s new Division of the State Architect (DSA) irrigation efficiency requirements.