Ahead of the restoration of historic National Park Service placenames, Team Lotus hit up Yosemite in July for its 2019 Leadership Retreat, using the 12-hour out-and-back trek up Half Dome as an opportunity to bond, conquer some serious vertigo, appreciate some of California's natural beauty, and reaffirm company culture + business strategy goals.
The City of San José has published a Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Plan that lays out the approach, strategies, targets, and tasks needed to transition traditional “gray” infrastructure to include GSI over the long term. Lotus Water was integral in developing the plan, which serves as an implementation guide for institutionalizing the concepts of GSI into standard municipal engineering, construction, and maintenance practices. As California’s weather becomes increasingly unpredictable and extreme, GSI strategies can provide the City with enhanced climate resiliency, local water supplies, and energy savings, consistent with the City’s sustainability goals. The GSI Plan is available here for public review and comment until May 15 - take a peek and share your thoughts!
Under sunny skies, community members and local officials gathered Saturday to celebrate the reopening of the newly spruced up McLaren Community Garden, which features a series of rain gardens designed by Lotus as part of the SFPUC’s Visitacion Valley Green Nodes project. The new green infrastructure will manage 800,000 gallons of stormwater each year from approximately 1.5 acres of impervious surface, while providing a pedestrian and habitat connection to McLaren Park from Leland Avenue. “I am thrilled to see the community and environmental improvement projects at McLaren Park,” said Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). “We are lucky this year to have gotten so much rain, but that’s not always the case. The new rain garden will help us to reuse hundreds of thousands of gallons of rainwater each year. We need more projects like these that bring benefits to local communities while helping advance our broader environmental goals.” The ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by community yoga, gardening activities, and a walking tour of the rain gardens where community members were able to see the bioretention areas in action after the rainy week. Attendees also learned about how the City is implementing green infrastructure through capital projects, programs, and grants to sustainably manage stormwater. Read more about the Visitacion Valley Green Nodes here!
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The SFPUC GI Grant Program has launched! Lotus helped developed the program and will be providing ongoing technical support during implementation. The first public workshop about the program sold out with over 100 attendees, and the first applicant has already submitted! The SFPUC aims to award $6M in GI grants during the first two years of the program, with up to $2M max per project. Learn more about the program and how a grant could benefit you!
Lotus recently helped complete the Stormwater Resources Plan (SWRP) for Santa Clara County. The Plan identifies and prioritizes green stormwater infrastructure throughout the County. As part of the project, Lotus developed concept designs of several promising opportunities. The project website is here and the SWRP report can be downloaded here.
conceptual rendering (image credit: CMG)
Lotus has been working on developing sustainable water systems for the Civic Center District area since 2014. More recently, we were on CMG’s team to assist them with developing a comprehensive plan for the public realm area of the Civic Center Plaza, Fulton Street, UN Plaza, garage/Brooks Hall, and adjacent streets. Our piece of this plan included over 100 iterations of complex water balance analyses!
Read more about the this ongoing plan in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Taking advantage of our wonderful new shared space, Lotus celebrated our first holiday season at 660 Mission with our friends and neighbors at SITELAB. After a hard day’s work, everyone was treated to a Winter Wonderland-themed happy hour, complete with a lively white elephant gift exchange that went into extra innings, fueled by the office’s creative spirit...along with a tasty, Spiked Cocoa Bar featuring a homemade hot chocolate recipe!
The EPA recently awarded the Holloway Avenue Green Street Project with an Honorable Mention as part of its 2018 Performance and Innovation in the State Revolving Fund Creating Environmental Success (PISCES) program. The project (also referred to as the Lake Merced Green Infrastructure project) is located within the Ingleside Neighborhood and is one of eight SFPUC Early Implementation Projects that have been constructed or are currently being constructed as part of Sewer System Improvement Program. Completed in 2017, the project converts a nine-block stretch of an urban residential street and important bike route into a high-performing green street that also provides pedestrian and bike safety improvements. Parking lanes were reconstructed with pervious concrete pavement to manage roadway runoff and bioretention was incorporated into new corner bulbouts and sidewalk planters to manage sidewalk runoff while also adding greenery along the corridor. The new green infrastructure measures will remove approximately 1 million gallons of stormwater each year from the City’s combined sewer system.
Lotus Water led the planning, stormwater modeling and preliminary design of this project. Additionally, we are providing post-construction performance monitoring and analysis and performing maintenance inspections.
Read more about the PISCES award here!
What do you get when you mix great people who share a passion for engineering innovation, collaborative design, sustainability, and add a splash of water? Welcome to 660 Mission, Lotus’ new 4,700 square-foot home and office space shared with SITELAB Urban Studio in San Francisco’s dynamic SOMA neighborhood.
The two firms celebrated our new space with an Open House in October with friends, colleagues, and clients. We delighted our guests with a gourmet spread from Oakland’s Roux and Vine, sweet treats from Churn Urban Creamery, and craft brews from Black Hammer, including the limited release Sea Puppy created in homage to the Embarcadero Sea Wall.
We were thrilled to see so many familiar faces and are loving our new digs!
Lotus had the privilege of volunteering at Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), a non-profit dedicated to promoting ecological health, environmental stewardship, and community development in Southeast San Francisco. LEJ works to create urban greening, eco-literacy, community stewardship, and workforce development opportunities that directly engage and support local residents in securing a healthier future. Team Lotus got our hands dirty (literally!) in their native plant nursery by moving soil, cleaning seeds, and transplanting baby plants to replenish native plant stock for restoration projects in Candlestick Point State Recreation Area (CPSRA). The team had a blast getting outdoors and rolling up our sleeves to contribute back to our community!
WEFTEC (Water Environment Federation's Technical Exhibition and Conference) is recognized as the largest conference of its kind in North America and offers water quality professionals from around the world with innovative water quality education and training. With the host city’s bustling French Quarter as a backdrop, Lotus’ Robert Dusenbury, along with the former King County Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Program Manager John Phillips, were selected to present on a new Green Infrastructure (GI) Project Scorecard developed collaboratively by Lotus Water, Herrera, and EcoNorthwest. The scorecard evaluates GI projects to determine when investment in GI is an appropriate part of the solution within a particular CSO basin. Over 100 project characteristics can be entered and evaluated to first determine the cost-benefit ratio of a GI project alternative compared against the baseline grey alternative within each basin, then both quantitative and qualitative additional benefits are stacked on top of that baseline comparison to determine when a GI concept should be carried forward for further development and evaluation. The framework of the tool is flexible and can be adapted to the priorities and values of other areas to comprehensively evaluate sustainable infrastructure in areas with complex environmental, cultural, and resiliency priorities like New Orleans.
