Celebrating Leadership At Carducci Associates / Monty Hill Promoted to Senior Associate!

Carducci Associates is excited to announce our growth in leadership with the promotion of landscape architect Monty Hill, LEED AP, CID, to Senior Associate! For five years, Monty has brought his sense of beauty and technical expertise to many teams and projects, always with singular calm, respect, and thoughtfulness. With this promotion, we celebrate Monty’s achievements in the firm.

Monty began his career as a civil engineer focused on the technical aspects of watershed analysis, hydrology, and stormwater management. Subsequently, his interest shifted to the design of people-oriented spaces and the creative aspects of landscape projects.

Monty returned to school to study landscape architecture at UC Berkeley Extension. Concurrently, he was able to immediately apply his new skills at a high-end residential landscape firm designing poolside rural retreats and sustainable urban garden spaces using refined materials. After graduating with distinction, Monty turned to public and commercial design opportunities to apply his creativity and technical skills to the wider audience that Carducci Associates affords. He enjoys making a difference in the lives of everyday people by creating functional, sustainable environments such as Willows Shopping Center, Fallon Sports Park, and Cupertino High School. In his new role, Monty looks forward to working on future projects at Carducci Associates and mentoring the next wave of landscape architects.

Design Outdoor Learning Spaces to Transform Children’s Lives / Principal Lattanzio Writes in Learning By Design Magazine

Principal Vince Lattanzio, ASLA, co-authored “Design Outdoor Learning Spaces to Transform Children’s Lives” in the Summer 2018 issue of Learning By Design, accessible ​here. 

Written with Vicki Moore (Director, Founder of Living Classroom) and Dr. Jill Goodman Gould, PhD and Linda Stevenin (Artik Art & Architecture), they describe a philosophy of outdoor learning that Carducci Associates develops through numerous school designs throughout the Greater San Francisco Bay Area. These biophilic learning environments are featured in the  Academics + Childcare projects on our website.

Celebrating the Grand Opening! / Fallon Sports Complex Phase 2

The City of Dublin celebrated the Grand Opening of Fallon Sports Complex Phase 2 on March 24 during on and off rain showers. The $14 million development, which began in 2013, includes: a 90’ lighted natural turf baseball diamond, two lighted synthetic turf soccer fields, a shaded group picnic and BBQ area, four lighted bocce ball courts, an adventure playground, and custom furnishings throughout. Children immediately gravitated to the playground this first day.

Although the baseball game was rained out, the rain of course contributes positively to the new phase in other ways. Vegetation will grow to provide aesthetic, ecological, and hydrological features to the sports complex. Bio-basins are planted with over a dozen species of native plants, and include educational signage about the role of a bio-basin in the water cycle, and the pollinators and bloom periods associated with specific native plants.

In just a few months since plant installation, some ornamental grasses, especially Muhlenbergia rigens (Deergrass) and Deschampsia cespitosa (Tufted Hairgrass), already provide significant volume to the new park features. These spaces will continue to fill in adjacent to the picnic and play areas, and at the base of the artist Heath Satow’s “Elatus,” the park’s iconic 32’ tall stainless steel statue.

Carducci Associates has designed a sports complex that includes the thoughtfully-constructed wildness of a true park. On a recent walk through Fallon’s Phase 1, where our office’s planting design has had 10 years to grow in, this unique pairing of landscapes has matured. Baccharis pilularis, Salix lasiolepis, Platanus racemosa and Salvia ‘Pozo Blue’ shade and frame the enduring brightness of synthetic turf, the sharp geometry of adjacent basketball courts, and running paths. The playful contrast between maintenance and wildness, synthetic and natural, continues in Phase 2. Concentric mow pattern rings a baseball pitcher’s mound that echoes Dublin’s hills visible in the distance.

Instances of this balance will increase as the park ages. The third and final phase will complete the picture our office has been involved with since the development of master plan beginning in 2004. The final phase of the 60 acre park will introduce two additional Little League baseball fields, two additional softball fields, additional group picnic and play areas, and the completion of the BMX facility. Fallon Sports Complex provides an intriguing case study for the ability of a traditionally highly maintained and synthetic sports complex to provide an ecological and hydrological partner to broader development patterns taking shape throughout the City of Dublin.

Grand Opening! / Fallon Sports Park Phase II

This month, Carducci Associates celebrates the opening of Phase II of the City of Dublin’s Fallon Sports Park! The Grand Opening, on March 24, represents a significant milestone since the office and the city previously celebrated the Grand Opening of Phase I in 2010. Since 2012, Carducci Associates has developed a design for Phase II that balances the park’s athletic, educational, and environmental features.

In other news, earlier this month, the office celebrated along with the City of Berkeley its renovation of the Gilman Fields (formally known as the Tom Bates Regional Sports Complex), a project reviewed in recent blog posts.