Mogavero Architects

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Work

Colonia San Martin

Colonia San Martin is designed to provide permanent and supportive housing to formerly homeless, low-income individuals with disabilities and/or families where at least one member has a disability. The fundamental design objective was to blend efficient constructability with a range of colors and finishes to create a vibrant, dignified community. The design includes outdoor courtyard spaces, rich Spanish colors, and accent tiles that give interest to the buildings. The buildings focus on a common green to reinforce a sense of community and create “eyes on the street”. The landscape design reflects the environmentally responsible principles of the project by incorporating edible and drought tolerant plant materials and integrated natural drainage swales. A community garden with individual plots for residents will be used to grow food and serve as a nurturing, long-term, teaching environment. Colonia San Martin includes a solar-powered community building with a great room for community events, social work/case manager offices, administrative offices and a tele-medicine exam room. The residences exceeds Title 24 energy requirements by more than 20%.

Work

Almond Court Senior Housing

Almond Court senior housing in Manteca, California complements the adjacent Almond Terrace senior housing which was completed in 2004. Connected by driveway and sidewalks, both projects are dedicated to providing independent and affordable housing for seniors in a supportive community setting. Almond Court has 39 senior apartments in addition to a manager’s residence. Six buildings are arranged around two landscaped courtyards, including seating areas, raised planter boxes for community gardening, and a bocce ball court. Adjacent to this green, the community building provides a lounge for residents, manager’s office, laundry room, and common restrooms. Nearby, a paved path covered by a steel trellis allows residents from both sites to interact and feel connected. Each apartment is accessible and adaptable for residents with mobility needs. Besides ease of access to and within the apartments, site pathways are set up for easy maneuvering from building to building, the sidewalk and street. Local dining, shopping and bus access are directly adjacent. All units have front and rear porches, and residents can gather in a number of exterior seating areas to visit. A covered patio at the community building accommodates benches that sit beneath existing redwood trees that were preserved during the design and construction process.

Work

River’s Side at Washington Square

River’s Side is an infill mixed use project in an emerging neighborhood across the river from downtown Sacramento. The project consists of 26 detached, zero lot line, single-family homes along with a mixed use building anchoring one of the site corners. Circulation to the single family homes is provided by a narrow urban lane that provides passage for pedestrians and slow moving cars in the same space configured in what is sometimes referred to in Dutch as a “woonerf.” The project contributes significantly to West Sacramento’s redevelopment efforts, creating a catalyst for future projects in the Washington neighborhood.

Work

CityWalk Condominiums

Sustainable architecture, characterized by responsible site selection, promotes broad community benefits and reduced ecological impact. CityWalk Townhomes provide diverse housing options in a central city neighborhood within easy walking and biking distance to 100,000 jobs, schools and community. Our firm was the managing design and development principal of CityWalk. The homes were built on a long- vacant corner in downtown Sacramento. The goal of the project was to provide a catalyst for downtown condominium development. The design follows a modern interpretation of patterns in Sacramento’s historic city center. Consisting of three buildings around a central, common courtyard, each unit has its own raised front porch, a rear deck, and a private yard. The corner unit is a live/work configuration with retail space featuring an artist’s gallery on the ground floor and living space above. The secure semi-subterranean shared parking allows for denser site utilization and minimizing the impact of cars on the site and the immediate neighborhood.

Work

Jibboom Street Power Station

The Jibboom Street Power Station conceptual design envisioned the reinvention of Sacramento’s riverfront into a mixed use destination where people of all ages could enjoy river views and new amenities. The historic power station and an integrated civic amphitheater were to have been the focal point of the development, acting as anchors for additional development north and south of the existing buildings. The historic power station was planned to be respectfully renovated into a dining and entertainment destination with an open air amphitheater tucked into the hillside off the southern edge of the building. The development was also planned to include a modern, sophisticated residential building with over 200 for-sale units located on the northern edge of the site.

Work

2500 J Street

2500 J street is an urban infill renovation project, in Sacramento’s thriving Midtown neighborhood; the project involved renovation of a 10,300 square foot laboratory building into a mixed-use space, with retail on the ground floor and office space above. The project goal was to maximize the building’s retail presence on the street, keeping it consistent with the pedestrian focused, friendly, easy character of its midtown neighborhood. The new glass storefronts along J Street are set along an angle defining the retail space, and due to their angled nature draw the eye to them., transforming a building that receded from the street into a vibrant, active storefront that activates the entire block. A red triangular wall at each entry connects visually with the yellow triangular trusses projecting from the second story for signage and exterior lighting, further adding a unified visual interest. The design emphasizes the human scale along the well-articulated streetwall, to draw foot traffic in. The second floor is devoted to office space and its entrance on 25th street is designed with large windows repeating the triangular pattern. In addition, the business stairwell is well illuminated by windows creating a welcoming, airy entrance space. Electrical and HVAC systems were completely renovated throughout the building. Components of the structural lateral system were modified to accommodate the increase in storefront retail, allowing more access to storefront windows and street views. The design added a colorful component to the street and quickly gained attention of retailers. The building was completely leased within two months of completion.

Work

Sac State American River Courtyard

Replacing a 60-year-old outmoded dormitory, American River Courtyard Student Housing is the initial step of transforming California State University, Sacramento from a commuter destination to one with a campus life community. The building achieved LEED Gold certification and was named the Best Public Project of 2009 by the Sacramento Business Journal. The project creates architectural integrity and scale while relating to surrounding student housing, acting as an icon for the University’s residential district. When the project was completed, CSUS was presented with a check for $75,000 from SMUD for exceeding the state’s energy efficiency standard by 35%. We facilitated this efficiency with lighting, solar hot water heating systems and building controls, the preservation of existing trees and installation of water efficient landscaping. The site is organized to create memorable places that define graduated levels of community. A courtyard creates a stage for student life, reinforcing the notion of community while the exterior design recognizes the context of the existing residence halls as well as newer buildings on campus. Architectural elements respond to diverse functions and create a lively visual experience through the composition of varied textures and colors. In the courtyard, special attention was paid to circulation for pedestrians and cyclists. Bicycle parking is accommodated along the main circulation paths, providing convenient access and storage.

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Lexington Apartments

This mixed use project in Davis has 122 student apartments and 3,100 square feet of ground floor commercial space combined with central common areas to provide opportunities for social contact between student residents and create a friendly community feel. Common facilities that include a community building with recreation and exercise facilities, a laundry, and open study rooms were placed in key locations to enliven the project site and provide natural surveillance by the residents for added safety. The site allows for excellent non-vehicular connection to the UC Davis campus and was designed to be pedestrian oriented with wide, shaded sidewalks, narrow drives, and hidden parking in several locations. Retail and office space on the ground floor establish an interface with the street, and the 3-story residence buildings were designed to allow for maximum connection between buildings and landscape with porches in varied positions, generous balconies and covered walkways that penetrate buildings. The residences are a combination of ground floor flats and 2-story townhouses. The units were designed to provide extra privacy and living space for student lifestyles, balancing the needs of quiet study time with (sometimes loud) social activities.

Work

UC Davis Tercero 2 Student Housing

Our firm was charged with developing a program and implementing an interactive schematic design process for this 592 bed, dormitory style student housing project. The resultant LEED Gold project incorporates 30% water and energy savings along with storm water detention and treatment, natural ventilation, recycled materials and on-site renewable energy. Our firm provided site massing studies and constructability value analyses followed by an area-wide site planning effort that organizes existing and future housing projects on the UC Davis campus. The project creates community at ascending levels, accommodating differing comfort levels while allowing for varying levels of resident interaction. Plans encourage social engagement, balancing accessibility and safety with the need for solitude. Common spaces are carefully located with spatial visibility as a goal: a place to see and to be seen while contributing to a greater sense of community. In this way, students are able to establish a sense of ownership, taking care of their ‘home’ while being engaged with their surroundings. Floor plans from the University’s recent housing projects were analyzed as a way of developing prototypical clusters of student rooms, serving as building blocks for floor configuration and amenity layout. Window seats reinforce hallways as gathering spaces, defining each cluster while working in concert with the building’s passive ventilation system. Hallways end in vistas to the campus community, providing an open, airy feel to corridors and connection to the campus at large. New cluster design with window seats Sustainable site drainage‚ percolation swales, pervious concrete Motion detector ramp up/dim down Hallway lighting Natural ventilation system using stair towers to circulate air Beat Title 24 by more than 32% Daylight harvesting Natural ventilation system Solar water heating

Work

7th & H Affordable Housing

Our firm led a multi-disciplinary team of design professionals for this eight-story mid-rise, mixed-use project for Mercy Housing California. Located in downtown Sacramento and surrounded by myriad government and industrial land uses, this post-tensioned concrete building consists of 150 affordable residential individual units atop a clinic space for residents and accompanied by ground floor retail. The project sought to build a community within the building, contribute to the vibrancy of the neighborhood, and connect to the community at large. We achieved this through a variety of design approaches, including an activated streetscape, well-designed, visible common area spaces and distinct community rooms and balconies on the upper floors. The unique Z shape plan creates two large landscaped outdoor terraces on the second floor. The clinic on the ground floor is designated for resident use as part of a comprehensive wellness program for this special needs resident group. The roof is crowned by a dramatic solar panel array that provides energy to heat water and power the building. Our team’s passion for sustainable design coupled with our integrated design approach for building, energy and water systems provide a high-level of comfort for residents, provide for improved indoor air quality, and allow for efficient day lighting to deliver occupant satisfaction at very low operating costs. Using collaborative, integrated design practices and strategies helped to reduce the project’s ecological footprint and allowed us to achieve a truly green building, while satisfying all the programmatic goals.