Project Data:

Completion Date:     10/1/2020

Square Footage:      13060

Building Use:           Community building, pool, and large elevated terrace situated within a residential development

Project Description:

Rise Park is located within a nature-inspired architectural residential community on an 18-acre park in the Orange County Great Park. The 18,500-square-foot community center and Overlook is part of a larger area re-development of a 1,300-acre historic site where a trail system connects ten residential communities. The park is a gathering place that encourages wellness and community with three themes: Majestic Garden, Profound Sanctuary, and Overlook.

At the Overlook, a large elevated terrace is oriented to capture the view toward the setting sun and Santiago Peak. The angles of the terrace point to the winter and summer solstice sunset locations. The restroom building is designed as an abstract, monolithic art installation.

Located at the park’s high point, the Majestic community building was inspired by majestic synonyms, such as elevated, lofty, and distinguished. The distinctive modern architecture is highly exacting and crafted to express the character of those words. The roofline begins flat and intimate at the library and twists to create a lofty interior space, which is the building’s main public gathering space, resulting in two distinct interior experiences with one roof.

The building’s enclosed spaces are configured at the center of the building, while the building perimeter is surrounded by glass. The transparent building envelope integrates operable, sliding panels to blur the building edges and create a seamless flow from the interior and exteriors as an extension of the sylvan landscape surrounding it. A bold gradient of various hues of sustainably sourced oak blends the floor, walls, and ceiling from light to rich brown tones, which further express the roofline’s twisting motion. The north side of the building is a lounge and a showcase catering kitchen to host intimate gatherings. The South Lounge is anchored by a two-sided fireplace of inked cast brick that links the outdoor seating zone under the wood roof’s extension above. The two lounges are linked by an art gallery wall that showcases commissioned work by a world-renowned artist and naturalist, who only uses reclaimed specimens that have died from natural causes.

The pool shade structures are simple in form and function as a sophisticated piece of structural engineering, cantilevered 12 feet into the air and then cantilevered an additional 15’ to create shade with no visual interruption to the pool.

The Profound Sanctuary gardens create a sense of balance for the mind and body by incorporating empty (yin) and occupied (yang) activity spaces. A collection of circular forms, two architectural shade structures reinforce the park’s geometry and create a strong visual connection to nature. The shade pavilion has a folded wall with a circular opening that frames a landscape feature tree and serves as a single person’s seat. Support for the pavilion includes a large rock to literalize the connection between nature and its supportive/restorative properties. The underside of the pavilion is a perforated mirrored surface to reflect the garden onto the shade pavilion; looking up also means looking down to the gardens.

Firm Name:              Studio One Eleven

Completion Date:     10/1/2020

Square Footage:      13060

Building Use:           Community building, pool, and large elevated terrace situated within a residential development

Location:                 249 Sawbuck, Irvine, CA 92618

Project Description:
Design for Integration
Rise Park was conceived through the lens of a community design approach. According to the Center For Active Design, new communities should endeavor to support well-being for the community at large. We approached the design for Rise Park and Overlook with this tenet in mind, striving to achieve wellness for the mind, body and soul by focusing on aspects of spiritual, emotional, social and physical interaction. Active design strategies were utilized to enhance open space connectivity to nature with the goal of providing opportunities for the community to improve health in a well-rounded manner. This served to inform design decisions in both architectural expression and incorporation into the landscape design.

We additionally collaborated with artists who designed shade sails and concrete stamping that illustrate a selection of migratory birds found in the park. A layered, five sail installation creates depth and tells a story about the Irvine sky. Imagery of clouds that form at different elevations matches the varying heights of the sails. Three birds species flying at different heights continue this theme of elevation and connect to the stamped concrete below the deck (which includes Great Blue Heron, Yellow Warbler, Belted Kingfisher, Red-tailed Hawk, White-throated Swift, Barn Swallow, among others.) These birds can be viewed (in their living form) by way of natural views as well as tower viewers that were installed to observe wildlife in the adjacent protected lands of the Aqua Chinon Corridor.

Design for Equitable Communities
The project has now become a key feature in the trail system as a communal space for neighbors and visitors to socialize. The parks not only attract the local community but have become a central meeting place for residents from throughout the region to access world-class bike and walking trails.

The parks and open spaces additionally supplement the surrounding residents, who share tight lots with minimal private outdoor spaces. The idea is that the parks and meeting spaces, directly force people to come together. This is critical in a time when people are isolated in their homes more than ever. The park is your backyard, and also a place to engage with art and the local community.

Design for Ecosystem
The site is located within approx.1300 acres of land that was the former site of the El Toro Airbase. Originally established in the 1940s, thousands of acres of concrete runways were remediated in the early 2000s and the land was converted back to the native soil and into a public park with a focus on sports, agriculture, and the arts. That said, the client's goal was to bring nature back to the site and to integrate native plants that attracted birds and wildlife back into the habitat. Our team worked closely with the landscape designers to fulfill this goal, selecting a material palate of plant life that brings migratory birds back. By making the project open and porous, birds can fly in and throughout the project, and animals can transverse the structure uninhibited.

Design for Water
The project was designed so that all rainwater is contained on-site. There are site-wide filtration areas that allow for stormwater to be treated on-site so that it does not drain to the ocean. A water element at the ground level uses a filtration system that recycles water, and also serves as a passive cooling system for the entire site. Overlook, specifically, is a low-water use park, using reclaimed water and incorporating native drought-tolerant landscaping.

Design for Energy
The Overlook was originally conceived as a closed building. Part of the commitment to exceeding building code minimums was to work with the client and the landscape team to make an open-air pavilion that would still provide the comfort and appropriate area for the program goals. Through the use of passive cooling both with the water feature and the exposed concrete, in addition to the fact that a portion of the project is embedded within the hill, it creates a cool microclimate that can be used year-round. A water element at the ground level allows for the prevailing breeze to force hot air to rise up through the oculus while concurrently fresh air is moving across the water, further cooling the area underneath.

Design for Well-being
The Majestic and Overlook provide an elemental stopping point on the journey through Rise Park, offering an array of outdoor spaces and experiences that promote and encourage health and wellbeing. The project maximizes the mild Orange County climate and open expanses of the Great Park. The Rise park neighborhood centers around larger open spaces, parks, and trails that anchor each of the Great Park Neighborhoods. In addition to drawing in residents, the project brings people from the surrounding area to experience and wonders of the natural environment.

Design for Change
By collaborating with the client and the landscape designer, we were able to ultimately create porous structures, that allowed us to integrate landscape into the design and create a greater variety of spaces than we would have otherwise.

Design for Discovery
The project is designed to encourage people to explore the natural environment in ways that they normally wouldn't or couldn’t. It's designed for self-discovery, where participants are encouraged to draw on different experiences tailored to their interests. Rather than imposing a specific point of view, the design fosters a sense of freedom that is encouraged by that flexibility.

Design Architect:
Studio One Eleven

Associate Architect or Firm:
Retail Design Collaborative (Interior Design)

Landscape Architect:
Bright View Design Group

Owner / Developer:
FivePoint

Engineer:
Hunsaker (Civil Engineer)
Henderson Engineers (MEP)
Structural Focus (Structural)
Candela (Electrical)
Engeo (Geotech)

General Contractor:
Consolidated Contracting Services

Consultant:
Illuminate Lighting Design (Lighting Design)
Firesafe Planning Solutions Inc. (Fire Access)
RSM Design Group (Building Signage & Wayfinding)
Aquatic Technologies (Pool Consultant)
CG Systems (Low Voltage)
Morrow Management (Dry Utility)

Photographer:
Tsutsumida Pictures