BBFMP - Appendix E – Design Charrette Summary

APPENDIX E - Charrette Summary

Charrette Summary

On September 28th, 2023, Big Basin Redwoods State Park Staff met with Placeworks and Mithun for a design charrette — a focused collaboration session meant to flesh out big ideas, complex details, and overall strategies.

The day began with an open-ended question to get participants voicing their most essential values and aspirations for the park: “It’s 2043: What’s your impression after visiting Big Basin?” The group offered verbal and written answers to the prompt. Responses are captured in the word cloud above, with size of text reflecting frequency.

Reflections on Whole-Park Organizing Concepts

THE CENTRAL VILLAGE

NETWORKED NEIGHBORHOODS

DISPERSED COHORTS

Participants were asked to categorize their feedback on each Park concept by program area represented by stickynote colors, then place their comments under ‘pro’ or ‘con’ columns

Operations / Maintenance Staff Residential Visitor Experience Impacting All Categories

CONS

PROS The “Central Village” concept received the most input. Multiple comments valued collaboration and crossdepartmental communication, as well contained impact to natural resources, limited visitor interaction with operations facilities, and strong sense of staff community. Longer distances for call-outs, as well as possible crowding and choke points were some of the concerns.

“Networked Neighborhoods” received the least amount of input, possibly because it was considered a “middle of the spectrum” concept. The comments were overall positive, highlighting benefits such as a nimble and flexible infrastructure as well as an enhanced visitor experience that engages higher diversity of access and mix of Park experiences.

The “Dispersed Cohorts” concept garnered multiple cross-program benefits notes, mentioning the ability to shift resources if Park areas are compromised, reflecting the value of resilience from the morning prompt. There is also belief that this is the preferred visitor experience.

Staffing shortages and difficult communication were concerns, as well as wildfire fuel management.

NarrativeDriven Program Distribution Participants were divided into three groups, each with equal representation of Park departments.

Using the three the organizing concepts as possible starting points, each team began with discussion to assemble a narrative describing Park organization and relationships between infrastructure. Each group was then given the same set of blocks representing the three program categories — staff residential, visitorserving facilities, and operations structures.

Flags and post-its were used to further describe porgram specifics.

Key Take-Aways Honoring the History

Pre-CZU facility organization was adhoc. What qualities and memories should be brought forward?

Excited for the Future

The opportunity for whole-park planning can yield holistic understanding and impactful experience.

Assembled artifacts from the forest ecosytem at the temporary visitor center.

RESILIENT. SUSTAINABLE. STEWARDED. A common theme throughout the day was to design the park in a way that learns from the vulnerabilities of the past, ensures efficient operation for many years, and prioritizes forest health. Participants often framed decision-making through the lenses of restoration goals, structural impacts on the land, and offering ecologically-senstive visitor interpretation and experience. Park staff understand the important potential for Big Basin to become an example of forwardthinking natural resource management.

A MULTI-PROGRAM HUB AROUND SADDLE MOUNTAIN During the program placement activity, each group assembled a strong centralization of all three program categories at the Saddle Mountain / Norabella / Potter area.

More specifically, groups tended to place visitor-serving and operations program on the south side of Highway 236 at Saddle Mountain and Potter, while creating a residential village to the north on the Norabella properties.

SUPPORT FOR A VARIETY OF HOUSING TYPOLOGIES The residential fabric of the Park pre-CZU was primarily single-family homes and smaller cabins. After seeing the variety of approaches available, the consensus was that a mixture of housing types offered the right balance of sustainability, equity, and community. Some hesitation to accept

the most-dense example of stacked flats evolved into general support for co-housing models that encouraged neighborhoods of Park staff. There was also support of all home sizes, from family-sized for long-term staff to smaller studio-sized for temporary or younger staff.

POSSIBLE SECONDARY ENTRANCE Park staff cited that, historically, about 60% of visitors approached from the north. The new Park approach focuses welcoming program at the southern Saddle Mountain entrance, forcing visitors to drive through the Park for information, check-in, and other key services. A second entry contact station, possibly at the intersection of Highway 236 and China Grade Road, offers the opportunity to intercept visitors and give essential information for their experience.

This contact could be limited — such as a single center-road kiosk — or more involved — such as a shuttle stop, parking area, interpretive structures, trailheads, picnic tables, etc. As such, this area requires further investigation as a possible opportunity site.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR VISITOR EXPERIENCE Excitement for a diverse range of visitor experiences permeated throughout the day, particularly during the program-placement activity. Ideas included new trails and hiking experience, multi-modal access strategies, environmental education centers, partnerships with outside organizations, sites for indigenous knowledge sharing, novel forms of teaching about forest health, and strong support for campfire programming.

Charrette Appendix ICE-BREAKER ACTIVITY RESPONSES Great campfire program!

Awesome hiking trails Resilient Stewarded Holistic Connection with place, community, and self Fun with family!

Resilient Peaceful Functional and flowing Seamless Healthy forest, healthy activities Welcoming Diverse Remote Welcomes all people Disconnected Clean Air A stress-free rejuvinating experience Inclusive Stewarding the forest Well-designed Resilient Honoring history It’s still here Family Intergenerational Ordered Efficient Freedom Keeping endangered species alive Maintained Deep history Tranquil Alive Holisitic design and experience Welcoming Incredible access to the ancient forest A chance for quiet reverence

Making family memories Buildings fit the landscape Contextual History Resiliency

NOTES AND COMMENTS DURING PRESENATION quality design and construction well-sized with space for families good housing is a recruiting tool more permanent residents 2 to 3 bedrooms for families single family homes are most intensive on environment resilient high-quality long-term buildings durable modular can be lower quality how can we be an example? opportunities / compromises will be filtered out to world both historical and forward-looking dispersed visitor experience smaller structures throughout park fractured visitor contact stations is very challenging single place for information and communication previous central check-in hub has worked well each program type can be its own village most residents grouped together in village smaller scale homes dispersed in 10 minutes walk

WHOLE-PARK CONCEPT RESPONSES DISPERSED COHORTS CONCEPT pro

res

dispersed for a presence

pro all proximity to key call-out areas like campgrounds or water plan

pro all more staff presence spread throughout park pro all if an area becomes unusable other areas are less impacted pro res experience

sense of preferred residence

pro

can close individual locations

all

pro res residents

sense of community connection for

pro

vis

dispersed recreational engagement

pro

all

quick call-out response

con vis too many visitor contact stations can cause visitor confusion

con

ops

more fail points

pro all responsive

nimble and topographically

pro

mix of different programs allows

all

flexibility

CENTRAL VILLAGE CONCEPT pro

ops

centralized for convenience

pro

ops

good for operations

pro areas

all

collaboration between program

con

ops

servicability

pro vis less visible infrastructure to affect visitor experience

con

ops

more fire fuel management required

pro

vis

structures means tree removal

pro ops smaller scale maint facilities dispersed throughout the park can prove beneficial to reduce travel time to a central shop but they should have one main facility headquarters

pro

ops

cross-department collaboration

pro

vis

good for first-time visitor orientation

pro

vis

public safety - easily evacuated

pro all dispersed housing in conjunction with centralized works well for emergency call-outs

pro all enhances interdisciplinary communication

pro ops operation

housing by waste-water plant vital to

con

ops

bad communication

con

vis

lack of staffing

pro ops easily overseen, direct communication to operational control

con

res

more utility and footprints

pro

con all fractured visitor experience leads to staff and resource drain

NETWORKED NEIGHBORHOODS CONCEPT pro vis networked

visitor experience should be

pro ops increased presence leads to more frequent observation of management needs pro ops happens

smaller facilities where visitation

pro

vis

access throughout park

pro

ops

good for facilities and operations

pro res serving spaces

separation of residences from visitor

pro

most flexible to different experiences

res

pro vis engagement

diversity of forms of access and

pro

preferred visitor experience

vis

pro res lowest environmental impact with minimal footprint

ops

more efficient

pro res neighborhood

sense of community and

pro

least natural resource impact

all

pro ops all maintenance facility workshops in one area for project work - all tasks completed the dispersed out to park pro res creates sense of community amongst co-workers and families pro vis visitor service efficiencies and reduced confusion con

vis

potential for crowding

con

ops

more driving

con vis congestion

creates a choke point for traffic

con

ops

all eggs in one basket

con

ops

harder to respond across park

con

ops

long commute

con

all

largest single footprint