PBy collaborators Hong Joo Kim, Jessica Varner, Leigh Christy and Marc Salette spoke this afternoon as part of Cal Poly Pomona Architecture Department’s Fall 2010 lecture series.

Organized around PBy’s four core principles, the group highlighted key aspects of Context, Vision and Process for undergraduate and graduate architecture, landscape architecture and planning students as well as faculty.  During the Q+A session, much of the discussion revolved around how a restored river would be similar to but different than the “original” river due to the transformation of the surrounding urban context.  Additionally, students seemed particularly interested in the process of working in a truly integrated  team, going so far as to hope that this method of collaborating would begin to proliferate the design world.  We couldn’t agree more.

IRA MARK ARTZ ANALYZES PIGGYBACK YARD HYDROLOGY

Providing Channel Capacity for River Revitalization

The Piggyback Yard is one of the most valuable land areas in the entire City for river restoration because of its immense water storage potential compared to other single-owner parcels of land.

This is where the Piggyback Yard Project provides its most significant contribution to the hydrology of the River: By storing peak flow, the volume of water in the channel is reduced. This in turn allows additional space in the channel for habitat plantings and related revitalization features, both adjacent to the Piggyback Yard and downstream. (more…)