Landscape Architect Articles

RRM Design Group10-13-17 | Feature

RRM Design Group
San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara

RRM Design Group is an award-winning design firm of architects, engineers, landscape architects, planners, surveyors and LEED???(R)???AE???? accredited professionals. According to the firm, "RRM exists because we love creating environments people enjoy, that is what got us into the business over 40 years ago, and it is why we continue to thrive today."

RRM, founded in 1974, has 13 principals and over 130 professionals in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, surveying and planning, all working to create parks children play in, the roads we drive on the way to work, the neighborhoods we come home to and the fire stations that keep communities safe.

The principles in the landscape architecture division are Jeff Ferber, ASLA, Mike Sherrod, ASLA, LEED AP, and Lief McKay, ASLA, LEED AP.

The firm's work culture emphasizes collaboration, frequent communication and accessibility, saying, "We listen, we design and we deliver. On time. On budget."

Photos: C. Ferber

Big Bear Village Streetscape Improvements, Big Bear Lake, Calif.

The city of Big Bear Lake selected RRM Design Group to develop a downtown specific plan for the core commercial and retail center. The plan involved transportation and multimodal elements, along with complete street design improvements to three of the major downtown streets, Village Drive Streetscape, Pine Knot Avenue Streetscape and Knickerbocker Trail. These three projects include pedestrian walkability improvements for visitors and residence, bike facilities to connect to local residential and tourist-oriented destination points, wayfinding signs, new street trees and decorative sidewalk and intersection paving. The work also involved waterfront design improvements.

2014 Merit Award, ASLA Southern Calif. Chapter

Venice Beach Ocean Front Walk and Skate Park Venice Beach, Calif."?uThe Busiest Public Park In California

RRM Design Group provided the planning, design, construction documents, bid services, cost estimates and construction administration for the award-winning renovation of the 1.7-mile Venice Beach Oceanfront Walk, noted for its free flowing cast of quirky characters and activities, which makes it the busiest public park in Los Angeles; it's said to be the second most visited place in California!

Extensive community outreach allowed RRM to get a design consensus from the various contentious factions and to get unanimous plan adoption from the city of Los Angeles and the California Coastal Commission. The design"?uwhich includes plazas, performance areas, recreational facilities, basketball courts, multiuse paths, art installations, gateway monuments, children's play areas and restrooms"?uhas proved to be vandal-resistant, safe, low-maintenance, innovative, artistic and attractive. The final phase of the design was the much awaited Venice Skate Park, a 16,000 sq. ft. facility right on the beach, which also served the purpose of capping an abandoned oil drilling site.

Greenwood Park, Hayward, Calif.

Greenwood Park, Hayward, Calif.

Taking full advantage of its beautiful, existing mature shade trees, RRM Design Group designed a complete renovation for Greenwood Park, originally constructed in the 1980s. Based on community input, the new park, which opened in Spring of 2016, includes two picnic shelters, basketball courts, a skate plaza, restrooms and a perimeter walking loop path for exercise. In lieu of a traditional play structures, individual play elements are distributed throughout the central core to encourage more movement and spontaneity: a group spinner, a trampoline, a climber and an ever-popular artificial grass mound for sliding. Three giant custom-fabricated flowers provide shade and a focal point.

Prince Memorial Greenway Santa Rosa, Calif. "?u Reclaiming and Restoring an Urban Creek

Enlisting widespread community participation, RRM completed the master plan, design development plans and construction documents for this greenway. RRM's urban designers and landscape architects collaborated with a team of civil engineers, hydrologists, biologists and public artists to revitalize a concrete drainage channel into a greenway and trail system. After extensive public collaboration, the design of the project emerged as a linear parkway with urban design, restoration and recreation elements, including a multimodal ADA accessible bike and pedestrian path, parks and plazas, public sculptures, extensive restoration landscaping and a naturalized creek bottom.

SLO Skate Park, San Luis Obispo, Calif. "?u Fusion of Form and Function

RRM Design Group worked with the city of San Luis Obispo, Wormhoudt Inc., and an ad hoc local skate park committee to develop a 15,500 sq. ft. in-ground concrete park. Recognizing that the skate park was only one component of the park's recreational experience, RRM shaped the skate park into a flexible, multiuse facility for the community to enjoy. The design features include flexible plaza space designed to accommodate vendors, events and bleacher seating, a stage with an informal amphitheater for awards ceremonies, music or movies in the park and a perimeter walk with built-in seating. Eye-catching elements for the park include four 25' tall metal and concrete tree sculptures created by local artists that express skate culture.