NO - Landscape Architect & Environmental Engineering - Ramsay Park Phase IV Design

The City of Watsonville was awarded a grant to enhance Green Infrastructure (GI) features for the new facility replacing the Nature Center currently under development at Ramsay Park. For 18 years, the Nature Center has delivered vital hands-on, outdoor environmental education and youth engagement from a humble prefab which limited its programming. Phase III of the Ramsay Park redevelopment will erect a new building designed to provide a fit-for-multi-purpose facility to serve as not just an education center for school field trips, but also as a hub for trail users to learn about the natural environment they are experiencing, a community classroom for adult learning and conservation programs, and a welcoming open space fit for a variety of new exhibits and pop-up programs.  
The GI features of Phase IV will make the new Nature Center a flagship for sustainable design and support the Center's educational content with its ability to impact visitors through on-site demonstrations for water conservation and low impact solutions in buildings and landscaping. 
This RFQ seeks submissions for the designs of three key GI features: 

1. A tree-lined, permeable, ADA accessible, multi-sensory switchback path connecting the building and lower parking lot. The path will enhance accessibility while also serving as an outdoor exhibit extension of the new Nature Center, providing a functional, inclusive entrance demonstrating natural bank stabilization and cooling. Tree and plant selection will prioritize species that: 

1. Are California natives  

2. Are drought-tolerant 

3. Support bank-stabilization and erosion control. 

2. Green roof landscaping (the roof’s structure itself is scoped into Phase III) and 

3. Bio-swale design enhancing benefits from stormwater postconstruction control requirement (PCR) levels 2 to 3. A PCR 2 design is scoped into Ramsay Park Phase III Exploration Center; the scope of Phase IV Green Infrastructure will build on this for an enhanced PCR 3 design.