LA Team Wins Design Competition

The winning design to re-imagine Sacramento?EUR??,,????'?????< Photo Credit: Kimberly Garza and colleague Andrew ten Brink

Boston-area landscape architect Kimberly Garza and colleague Andrew ten Brink of New York were named winners of an international competition to redesign Sacramento?EUR??,,????'?????<
The team won a $20,000 first prize for their re-imagining of the mall's sidewalks and medians as an urban forest, populated by native oaks and pine trees, and studded with event sites, including an amphitheater and farmers market.

Garza said the concept, called ?EUR??,,????'?????<
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Garza, a graduate of the Natomas Charter School Performing and Fine Arts Academy, as well as UC Berkeley and Harvard University, teamed with ten Brink to beat 39 other contestants, including several from outside the United States, officials said.

The competition was co-sponsored by the city of Sacramento and the local architect group AIA Central Valley. Jury member Bill Crouch, the city?EUR??,,????'?????<
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The design maintains open site lines between the Capitol building and Tower Bridge. The mall's center medians remain in place, but are turned into spaces where people can shop and frolic, including a marketplace and children's water play zone. To add more event room, the street is narrowed in some places to one lane in each direction.

The design also turns Crocker Park into a sculpture garden and adds an amphitheater on the south side of Capitol Mall near the freeway. It includes a pedestrian bridge over the freeway, and creates a riparian canopy along the Sacramento River.