Dos Lagos Heart & Public Areas

Fluency of the forms shape the void.

Conceived as a fully integrated community, the project pushes mixed-use to its fullest potential-providing space for a variety of life-styles, age groups, activities and productive life. More then a patch work of segregated land uses, the vision for the project re-accommodates the context to draw the pieces together into a cohesive live-work-play community.

The urban design strategy is based on the linearity of a pedestrian path that connects the multiple uses of 121-acre, west-side section of this 543-acre mixed-use community. As indicated in the scheme, this strategy has been materialized by establishing a north-south linear axis that structures the multiple uses of the entire complex. Pedestrians can experience a diversity of community functions-from the retail center organized around a main street concept; continuing through the common areas of the amphitheater and the entry plaza; being swept along the pedestrian promenade through the garden armature to the climax at the nine-foot waterfall and bridge; and on towards the lemon grove that divides the live-work on one side and the hotel / educational center; and, finally, ending at the office complex. Throughout this experience, architecture is used to provide adequate scale, a sequential and surprising experience while creating synergy among the various mixed land uses.

In urban design terms, the center piece is the vortex of connectivity for the multiple functions of the use-intensive west side of the community. The central feature that sets the development apart from other master planned communities is its core: a 10-acre park inhabited by two, 3.5-acre, butterfly-shaped lakes with a central nine-foot-high waterfall. An undulating walkway covered in bamboo, vines of American roses, concrete, and custom-milled ribs of steel runs between the two lakes and bridges the foot of the waterfall. On the southern curve of the lakes, this garden armature curls around a 350-seat amphitheater. A circular walkway, harking to the city's nickname of the "Circle City", circumscribes the lake, which is framed by a tapestry of multi-chromatic bands of landscaping. The center piece defines a focal point upon which all activities in the mixed-use West Side converge. In addition, the center piece creates a sense of place and identity.

The architect working simultaneously as an urban designer, transformed a two-dimensional scheme to a living and habitable space. This space is notable for the quality of defined interventions to add quality to spaces as they relate to their context. For example, the urban design becomes habitable and welcoming through architectural realizations of the urban design concepts such as human scale as defined by building masses and textures and their interaction with landscaped- and architecturally-designed open spaces.

In addition, the urban designer working as architect had the opportunity to reinforce this concept through four important pieces: 1) garden armature covering the pedestrian promenade; 2) residential live-work and active senior complex currently under construction; 3) an office building to be the home of the development company currently in design; 4) the conceptual design for a hotel, conference center, community college satellite campus, and parking garage reinforces the urban design concept to create a cohesive set of architectural comments on the fundamental urban design concepts. All these architectural concepts celebrate the urban design strategy of reinforcing the dialog between built and open spaces, utilizing the climate of Southern California to blend the experience between enclosed and open space.

Credits

• Text by Norberto F. Nardi
• Photographs by David Glomb, Courtesy of the Architect

View full page Pages: Previous Page 1 | 2 | 3