San Francisco’s First Bay-Friendly Rated Park, Designed by Carducci Associates / A Visit to the McLaren Rain Garden

Bay-Friendly Landscaping practices and design have been a consistent feature in Alameda County cities, and the movement championed by ReScape California is expanding state-wide. San Francisco Rec and Park adopted Bay-Friendly practices in 2014, and Carducci Associates is proud to announce that we were selected as Bay-Friendly designers for the team producing the first Bay-Friendly Rated SF Parks project!

McLaren Rain Garden is a series of terraces at the eastern edge of this large City park. The rain garden intercepts street and landscape water that formerly flooded city streets. Planting is 100% native, pollinator-friendly, and uses grey water harvested from within the park for irrigation. Abundant native flowering plants support the City’s new directive as a pollinator city.

Associate Principal Wesley Bexton designed the rain garden following the Bay-Friendly documentation process. Having participated in the requisite training, Carducci Associates has two additional Bay-Friendly Qualified Professionals (BFQPs), Senior Associate Alvin Tang and Associate George Chacon (bios here), with specific training in the unique regional aspects of landscape design, construction and maintenance in the Bay Area.