news
Vote for “Sacramento’s Front Porch”!
We need your vote! ✔️ Waterfront Idea Makers voting is now open. What is Waterfront Idea Makers? The City of Sacramento sought design concepts to activate the iconic Old Sacramento Waterfront to enhance the destination through the historic ambiance, visitor experience, interpretive value, and connectivity. Atlas Lab's design concept titled, “Sacramento’s Front Porch” seeks to reposition the Waterfront as Sacramento’s welcome mat by restoring the area between Front Street and the Waterfront into a signature park that honors Sacramento’ history and inspires the future for the local and visiting community. The park would include a splash pad, a live entertainment venue, and closes the gap of the American River Parkway for greater grid accessibility. Voting ends on March 20th.
Kimberly Garza discusses the role of prototyping at UNL – Hyde Lecture Series
For this lecture, Garza explores how tactical urbanism and urban prototyping can be used as a tool to engage communities, create authentic experiences and empower designers to improve the built environment using low-cost, small-scale strategies. Garza enlists designers to no longer wait for traditional design opportunities to occur, but rather, initiate and take quick action to create positive change in the world. Traditional landscape architectural projects often have lengthy timelines and lack meaningful community engagement opportunities, whereas tactical urbanism and urban prototyping have emerged to directly engage communities and influence how public spaces should be used and defined. In this lecture, attendees will learn how to design and engage communities [NOW!] using tactical design methods from pop up parks to public art installations.
Kimberly Garza heads to Midwest to keynote WI ASLA Conference 2019!
ATLAS Lab Principal, Kimberly Garza, heads to the Midwest to keynote WI ASLA Conference. Kimberly will discuss the role of tactical urbanism in her lecture "Design NOW". Traditional landscape architectural projects often carry lengthy timelines and lack meaningful community engagement opportunities. Moreover, landscape practitioners are typically not included during the engagement or construction phase of a project. In response, tactical urbanism and urban prototyping have emerged to directly engage communities and influence how public spaces should be used and defined. Kimberly discusses how to design and engage communities [NOW!] using tactical design methods from pop up parks to public art installations.
ATLAS Lab Team Selected for Sacramento Waterfront Idea Maker Competition
Thrilled to announce that Atlas Lab has been selected to develop innovative and implementation design strategies for the Sacramento Waterfront Idea Maker competition! We are joined by talented colleagues and friends: Agency Landscape+Planning, Dreyfuss+Blackford, HR&A Advisors, Rana Creek Design, Kimely-Horn, Fehr+Peers, and Buehler Engineering. The City of Sacramento sought firms or teams to boldly re-imagine Old Sacramento and its connection to the waterfront by generating concepts that enhance the district’s historic ambiance, aesthetic appeal, visitor experience. We will be working over the next two months with design team, City and UC Davis on design strategies. Stay tuned for competition updates!
Sea level rise article showcases the work of Principal Erik Prince
"Design aesthetics aren’t frills. They’re fundamental to showing us what’s at stake" - San Francisco Chronicle article by John King features the work of Atlas Lab Principal Erik Prince, who led Team Common Ground's proposal for a resilient SR37, San Pablo Baylands and North Bay. We're excited to continue the critical work with TLS Landscape Architecture and more on the next phase, stay tuned!
Atlas Lab Shortlisted for Sacramento Convention/Community Theater Plaza Public Art
The City of Sacramento is renovating and expanding the Community Center Theatre and Convention Center beginning in 2019 and re-opening in 2021. The project includes large, community plaza. The City of Sacramento, Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission, a division of the City of Sacramento Convention and Cultural Services Department, has prepared call to artists to develop art proposal for the plaza area. Atlas is thrilled to develop proposal and to continue creating a more vibrant Sacramento! Photo: City of Sacramento
Atlas Lab Announces New Leadership
We are beyond excited to announce our two new Principals and Partners, Marq Truscott and Erik Prince! Marq joins us with 35 years of experience in landscape architecture and projects that are diverse in scale and context. He lectures for the landscape architecture program at the University of California, Davis and serves on their Advisory Board as the Chair. Prior to joining Atlas Lab, Marq founded Quadriga Landscape Architecture. With over 15 years of experience in landscape architecture, Erik has led projects that combine strategic planning and urban design with the construction of complex public spaces. His design talent and leadership are distinguished in the profession, with expertise in resilience and sustainability planning. Alongside Kimberly Garza, Marq and Erik plan to keep pushing the envelope of innovation when it comes to designing conscious spaces with Atlas Lab. We’ve got some very exciting things in the works, so stay tuned!
Atlas Lab Shortlisted for Characters on Kay
Characters on Kay is about creating a unique, walkable art experience that promotes a sense of discovery and whimsy, threading through the heart of Sacramento. ATLAS will develop art concepts to enliven the public realm. We envision a series of small sculptures characters with backstories, doing various, quintessentially Sacramento activities.