Team Events in 2022

Always up for taking advantage of gorgeous weather in the Bay and opportunities to break up the routine of WFH, Zoom calls, GIS, or H&H modelling, the Lotus team still finds time to get together for outdoor fun, food, laughs…and a rare chance to see each other IRL!

Spring Fling // Oakland Waterfront

Our spring event was the perfect opportunity to check out Brooklyn Basin and Township Commons, a beautiful public park plaza on the Oakland waterfront, whose design by Einwiller Kuehl integrates community priorities, sea level rise adaptation, and sustainable stormwater features with the area’s rich shipping history.

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After an amazing lunch at Brotzeit Lokal biergarten (Oktoberfest in May, because why not?), we strolled (and kayaked!) along the water to Township Commons for music, suprisingly competitive games of Spikeball and Throw Throw Burrito, and just kicking it. Throughout the afternoon, we observed how thoughtful public spaces like the Brooklyn Basin can recall its historic past in design elements echoing the spacing of the former loading docks. We also saw how spaces can adapt to a post-Covid world; the large, open spaces at the Basin easily allowed for social distancing, while its waterfront location lends itself to be a destination for all kinds of recreation and activities. It was wonderful to see the park full of people roller skating, running, playing with their dogs, and to be reminded how important shared open spaces are to creating connection and community.

(footage courtesy of Brooklyn Basin/Township Commons)

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Fall Picnic // Presidio of San Francisco

Once again inspired by innovative design and a new waterfront park, the Lotus team gathered for an afternoon picnic at San Francisco’s new Presidio Tunnel Tops Park in early October. Over frosty drinks, a spread from Souvla and Gregory’s Underground Bakery, and frisbee with furry friends, the team enjoyed a chilly but beautiful sunset while exploring the 14-acre park overlooking Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge.

Despite the wind and a strong appearance by Karl the Fog, we toured the grounds to appreciate various design elements included by the James Corner Field Operations team. Partitioned spaces of lawns, meadows, outlooks, and outposts throughout the park allow for varied programming and a plethora of gatherings to take place simultaneously. Imaginative nature-inspired seating areas made of tree trunks, reclaimed wood, and boulders are sprinkled throughout for visitors to take a load off and enjoy the views. The design also incorporates bioretention areas to manage stormwater, infiltration galleries for groundwater recharge, and sea level rise and saltwater intrusion measures along the park’s lower outpost play area.

We had a blast together and look forward to exploring other new parks being built around the Bay, including India Basin Waterfront Park and Lotus’ own Mission Bay Bayfront Park!

Upper Islais Creek: A New Approach to Community Flood Resiliency

Prior to development and building of the I-280 freeway, Islais Creek flowed along what is now Alemany Boulevard, making its way through San Francisco from the city’s southern boundary out to the Bay. The Cayuga and Lower Alemany areas of San Francisco sit along this low-lying historic creek path and represent two of the most challenging flood problem areas within the City. After years of engineering analysis, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) proposed a 10-foot diameter tunnel to address the flooding in these areas. However, seeing that larger storms could still result in flooding and that the benefits of the tunnel project were limited to a smaller subset of San Francisco residents, the SFPUC also asked that a watershed-wide alternative be investigated, one that could provide comparable flood resilience as the tunnel while spreading more environmental and community benefits to a wider spectrum of residents. This request led to the Upper Islais Creek Watershed Flood Resiliency Project and development of the Upper Islais Creek Watershed Plan (the Plan).

To create the Plan, Lotus and the project team developed new methods of analyzing and quantifying long-term flood resilience and community benefits. The team conducted 2-D hydraulic and hydrologic (H&H) modeling analyses over a wide range of storms to create new multi-storm metrics and visual outputs that displayed how flood depth, risk, and damage varied based on different proposed improvements. The team also integrated new environmental and social benefit metrics and visual outputs into the analysis, such as increased biodiversity, reduced heat stress, and increased access to green space

The expected annualized flood depth (EAFD) shows the flood depth calculated by spreading out multiple storm probabilities and magnitudes equally over time (a discrete time period is not selected). Annualized depth does not mean the depth shown on the map would be seen every year (because this a longer term averaging of flood depths). While EAFD does not directly translate into an immediately usable statistic, it provides for comparison across projects visually showing which areas are expected to see the deepest flooding most frequently. This can be recategorized into a “risk score” to provide more value. (Lotus + Pathways Climate Institute)

Using the new approaches, the team developed the Plan—which includes 100 acres of drainage management area (DMA) for green infrastructure to be constructed over 15 years and 7 million gallons (MG) of storage to be constructed over 8 years—that together will soak up stormwater and slow down the combined sewer flows to attenuate peak flows during flooding events. It also includes multi-purpose floodable open space as part of a protect corridor that keeps flooding from even the most extreme storm events away from people and property, providing improved long-term resilience that factors in the impacts of climate change. The protect corridor also reconfigures the streetscape to improve bike and pedestrian safety, reduce noise and air quality impacts, and increase neighborhood connectivity. The Plan reimagines the surface of the city into multi-function roadways and spaces configured to safely manage larger storms while also providing additional community benefits.

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Working closely with the city and a multi-disciplinary team, Lotus was instrumental in analyzing the green infrastructure and storage locations to optimize flood reduction, while also finding synergies with other city agency projects planned in this location, to maximize multi-benefits and leverage combined funding opportunities. As the impact of climate change on infrastructure systems and our communities is felt more and more frequently, a new way of planning, designing, and funding projects for future conditions is needed. Lotus is excited to continue our collaboration with the SFPUC to be leaders in this field.

Breaking Ground: New California College of the Arts Campus

Despite a prolongued delay due to the ongoing pandemic, construction for the new California College of the Arts (CCA) extension campus in San Francisco succesfully resumed in 2022. The CCA gathered with the community, city officials, and the project team in November to officially celebrate with a ceremonial groundbreaking and reception showcasing the campus’ vision of sustainability.

Designed by a team led by Studio Gang, the new campus will feature overlapping courtyards and plazas that tie in a campus vision of interdisciplinary practice, engagement, and connection to the surrounding urban neighborhood. Both the construction process and the completed campus’ functionality are meant to be resource efficient. Lotus provided all civil engineering design for the campus and public realm spaces from concept phase through final design, and continues to provide support during construction.

live webcam of the work site

“To fuel culture and industry, a great city needs a great art school. CCA is building the most exciting urban art and design campus in the country, the only independent, privately endowed art and design school in Northern California. We educate students to meet the many challenges of our world with creative problem-solving, to become the innovators and game-changers of the future,” said Stephen Beal, President of CCA. “We know that diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to innovation and that educating students from diverse backgrounds is essential to realizing the full potential of art and design to positively impact the future of our communities,” said President Beal. “These valued organizations share our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the arts and design. Together, we are empowering talented students from historically underinvested communities to focus not only on their education but on becoming creative leaders who will make powerful contributions to shape our world.”

We’re excited to watch this project unfold and come to life!

Seeds of Innovation: Resilient Design Competition

In September 2022, Lotus Water participated in the Water Flows Forward - Seeds of Innovation: Resilient Design Competition, hosted by The Water Collaborative, a grassroots organization in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s competition challenged teams to develop a floating planter box for indigenous communities in Louisiana’s Grand Bayou Village, a region rich with culture and history. Given the area’s unique coastal setting and vulnerability to land subsidence, water levels, and climate change, bayou communities need an adaptable planter box with the flexibility to float while planted, withstand brackish water, be transportable both on land and in water, and integrate a water catchment system.

Inspired by the opportunity to help communities build resilience and find a solution for food security, we assembled a multi-disciplinary team of engineers and planners to put our water resource minds together to create a design that was multi-functional and a reflection of the local community in New Orleans.

Our Design

The Pirogue Planter pays homage to the pirogue boats used throughout the bayous of Southern Louisiana. The planter’s innovative and modular design provides removable planter boxes, rainwater harvesting and storage, accessibility options, as well as land and water mobility. Designed for current and future conditions as sea levels rise and coastal communities, such as the Grand Bayou Village, lose land to subsidence and flooding, the Pirogue Planter reflects the communities’ culture while providing a flexible solution for food and medicinal sovereignty.

Pirogue Planter (shown with rainwater catchment wings engaged) has flexibility to grow plants both on land and while afloat in water.

Pirogue Planter - Key Components:

Boat shell - made of powder-coated aluminum to withstand saltwater exposure and prevent rusting. Powder-coating can be customized to showcase local identity and traditional colors. The shell geometry allows for vertical stacking and lateral tesselation, streamlining efficient storage and transport at scale.

Planter boxes – removable t-shaped aluminum planter boxes, with drainage holes, that provide soil depths of 6” through 22”. The range of planting depth was selected to allow for a variety of food and medicinal crops, such as the “Three Sisters”, to be grown together sustainably.

Rainwater catchment wings - panels of the upper hull can swing out and be locked in place using a sofa ratchet hinge, creating an angled plane that captures rainwater and routes flows through a perforated false bottom into a reservoir.

Reservoir - the boat bottom stores rainwater for watering plants. Drainage holes in the bottom of the planters, which sit above and extend into the reservoir, allow plants to access stored water through capillary action. The intermediate false bottom has two reservoir access lids where collected rainwater can also be used for hand-watering the planter or other nearby plants in the community.

Drainpipe - a drainage opening in the bottom of the boat leads to an exterior drainpipe that can be adjusted to control the depth of water storage in the reservoir. A check valve prevents brackish water from entering the reservoir when afloat. This drainpipe system still allows drainage from the reservoir when the planter is afloat even if the interior water level exceeds the water level outside the boat.

Although the Lotus team did not win the design competition, the opportunity for our staff to collaborate in new ways, stretch our creative problem-solving muscles, and apply our expertise where it’s needed most was so rewarding. It’s not every day that our team gets to perform buoyancy calcs, analyze capsize stability, and research planting almanacs! Congrats to the winners - check out their inspiring designs here.

Lotus looks forward to continuing to work with communities to plan, design, and build for resilience on future projects and competitions!

Modular deployment of floating Pirogue Planter in water

Water Needs in the Bay Area's Vulnerable Communities

A Regional Water Needs Assessment report, led by the Disadvantaged Community and Tribal Involvement (DACTI) Program and funded by the Integrated Regional Water Management Program's (IRWM’s) Proposition 1, was released in September 2022. The report is the culmination of four years of research and findings from 13 individual needs assessment processes that were conducted between 2017 and 2021 by community-based partners—from a Tribal needs assessment process administered by five Tribal Outreach Partners and from the peer-to-peer needs assessment—to understand how people experiencing homelessness or poverty are accessing water for drinking, sanitation, and hygiene. Lotus’ Community-Involvement Planner, Maddie Duda, was the lead author and community liaison for the report.

The needs assessments revealed how strikingly similar priorities for water management are across the participating Disadvantaged Communities and Tribes. Many communities shared:

• a distrust for tap water quality and safety

• concerns about flooding related to storm surges, sea level rise, and groundwater rise

• concerns about lack of access to green space and nature — including creeks, rivers, and the ocean — for recreation.

The report’s Regional Connections section summarizes these priorities, best practices for making grant programs more equitable and accessible to Disadvantaged Community groups and Tribes, and other overall recommendations from the San Francisco Bay Area IRWM Region DACTI Program.

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This report is the product of the collective work of many partners that was spearheaded by DACTI with a goal of amplifying the voices of DACTI groups and people experiencing homelessness, and incorporating their needs into the planning process. Ultimately, the report serves to keep the San Francisco Bay Area region accountable to achieving the California Right to Water law enacted in 2012 that guarantees that “every human being has a right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.”

Imagine A Day Without Water, v2.0

“Imagine Track A Day Without Water”

For Lotus Water’s second year participating in the US Water Alliance’s Imagine a Day Without Water, our staff participated in a daily water usage tracking exercise. We invited our staff to take one day to document their water usage from dawn to midnight. The process was meant to gather data (we are engineers after all!), but was designed more to encourage personal reflection and focus awareness on our relationship with water. Living in an urbanized area, most of us don’t think twice about where our water comes from, frequently flipping the tap on and off throughout the day. But here in California, drought is never far from our minds and as a water-focused engineering firm, we work with water all day. Yet, the 11 staff who participated all remarked that tracking their water usage for just one day truly illuminated how little attention we pay to this precious natural resource.

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“Timing water use is humbling.”

>> Maddie Duda, Community Involvement Planner <<

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Our reflections ranged from noticing just how much water is used to wash dishes by hand, to acknowledging there’s room to improve efficiency in keeping the greenery going for those with yards and houseplants. A few people described household strategies to conserve water by capturing shower water or having laundry-to-landscaping set up. And of course, COVID has altered our relationship with water – more handwashing, keeping up with laundry, dishes, and overall cleaning in our own homes.

Yesterday—one day before Imagine a Day Without Water—was a rude, though fitting, awakening for Kelsey Wilson:

“I woke up at 6am, used the bathroom and soaped up my hands. Half asleep, I went to turn the tap on – gurgling and creaking pipes startled me out of my slumber. No water came out. I looked confusingly at the toilet and sink – the toilet had flushed but no water in the faucet. I tried the kitchen sink – empty pipes rumbling. I knew I had a bucket of water outside from my showers that was for plant watering and wandered out to finish rinsing my hands. When I came back into the kitchen I nodded in confirmation as I saw I had a jug of drinking water sitting on the counter. A quick check of my water provider’s website showed a water main had burst and they had shut off all water in my vicinity. Glad to know what was going on I felt relieved – a few hours later the water returned to the faucet. Yet for those few hours I knew what it felt like to have no water readily available. “

>> Kelsey Wilson, Urban Watershed Planner

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Others reflected on the physical movement of water throughout our living spaces and the ways we are so accustomed to just turning on the tap.

“It flowed through our water service lateral pipe, through our plumbing and in via one of our taps in the kitchen or bathroom. It was transported throughout the apartment in mugs, bottles, cups, and appliances. Household plants soaked it up and evapotranspired it. It flowed through me into the toilet, and then it flowed out through our wastewater pipe to the sewer.”

>> Jack Brown, Water Resources Engineer

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Being able to flip a knob and see clean water fill a glass or used water disappear down a drain is nearly effortless for most of California, but that’s not the case for the 2.2 BILLION people worldwide who can’t access clean water, nor the 4.2 BILLION without safe sanitation. Continued investment in water and wastewater infrastructure needs to be prioritized to ensure all our communities have access—now and into the future—to clean, affordable water that’s essential to everyday life.

Reflecting on our water use as a team also made us contemplate how to better advocate for this important resource in our work and daily lives, not only within the industry but to policy and lawmakers, and throughout the communities around us.

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“I've always been really interested in how many of our systems are set up to hide our use and waste from us -- we see faucets and drains and trash cans, but no collection of that water or our accumulation of trash over time. If we had to sit with/see these things all the time, might we all be more motivated to reduce our use?”

>> Maddie Duda, Community Involvement Planner

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Rain has been falling in the Bay Area the past few days, bringing much needed precipitation to the drought-stricken state. As we rejoice in this rainfall, let us not lose sight of this precious resource and continue to look for new ways to conserve water while investing in innovative solutions that support our infrastructure and the natural water cycle.

Celebrating Women + Water

March marks both Women’s History Month and World Water Day, and Lotus is highlighting ongoing gender inequity issues related to water, while celebrating the crucial role that women play as experts and agents of change in achieving universal access to water and sanitation.

2.2 billion people worldwide still lack access to safe drinking water, and women + girls are disproportionately affected by the lack of access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), often bearing a larger responsibility than males for daily activities that rely on water, such as providing water for drinking, cooking, sanitation, and hygiene. Yet, women are regrettably underrepresented in the water sector at just 18%, despite representing nearly 50% of the global population. As primary providers, managers, and users of water at home, women have unique perspectives that are critical to informing and driving productive change in the design and maintenance of water systems, water distribution, water health, and policymaking for our communities and planet as a whole.

adapted from Women in Water Utilities: Breaking Barriers (World Bank, 2019)

Representation Matters

Improving representation is part of the pathway to achieving gender equality in water, and Lotus is proud to count 68% women among its talented team of planners, designers, and engineers. Representation matters, not only because "If she can see it, she can be it”, but also because seeing women in prominent roles—whether it’s as mentors, advocates, technical experts, hiring managers, or decision makers—sets an example of what’s possible for all of us, building confidence in and inspiring future generations of female talent and male peers alike.

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In recognition of the accomplishments that women continue to make in the water world, we asked our Lotus team to name women who have made an impact on shaping their professional paths into water.

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STEFANI HARRISON

Stefani is a planner, engineer, and project manager whose expertise runs as deep as it does broad, spanning from Left Coast (SF Bay Area) to Right Coast (Boston Area), from wet infrastructure design to resilience policy development, and leading teams as both a consultant and from within the public sector.

- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “In addition to exceptional technical aptitude, Stefani has that rare ability to truly listen, empathize, and perceptively read a room to pinpoint key concerns + priorities, see + reconcile what’s at odds, map out a path forward, and then thoughtfully craft the right story that will resonate with each party involved. Seeing her balance quick + efficient analysis with measured + patient consensus-building is really quite remarkable, and showed me just how crucial an effective communication strategy is to the ultimate success of a project.”

-Amy Kam

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JANE JACOBS

Jane Jacobs was a 1960s activist who fought for equal pay for women, the right to unionize, and perhaps most notably, organized her neighborhood to oppose the construction of new high-rises and a new expressway as part of “slum clearance” plans for Greenwich Village. As a self-taught woman in the male-dominated field of urban + city planning, Jacobs tenaciously challenged established planning practices, and staunchly advocated for mindful development that preserves diversity and empowers local citizens to advocate for their community.

- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “As a young engineer, I was focused on improving the environment, but I wasn't very aware of our ability to impact people's experience within the public realm. Learning about Jane Jacobs and reading her books really introduced me to urban planning and changed how I thought about my role as an engineer. Because of her, I became more interested in how to weave urban planning into civil engineering through projects and policies that bring people together, preserve economic + cultural diversity, and create vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods. This permanently changed the focus and trajectory of my career.”

-Scott Durbin

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KIMBERLY O’CONNELL

Kimberly manages UC San Diego’s Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES ) permit + environmental compliance programs related to stormwater pollution prevention. She also runs AQUAholics Anonymous, a collaborative of UCSD students, staff and faculty that works to encourage water conservation on campus.

- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “Kimberly, my first internship supervisor, oversees UCSD's stormwater compliance. She has been a key mentor in shaping my interest in the subject, from learning about stormwater to guiding me to a career and graduate school focused on stormwater design.”

-Terrence Ng

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ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

Dr. Kimmerer is a scientist and award-winning author, whose work draws on the wisdom of both indigenous and scientific knowledge in advancing sustainability goals and restoring ecological health + our relationship to the land.

- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “Robin inspires me because she masterfully combines science, ecology, and traditional ecological knowledge in both her writing and advocacy.”

-Kelsey Wilson

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ALISA VIALPANDO

Alisa has been designing + managing engineering land development projects from concept through construction for over 3 decades, leading teams of engineers and inspiring teammates along the way.

- WHY SHE INSPIRES - “I was accustomed to being one of a very small handful of women engineers in college and in the workplace until I joined Alisa's team in my mid-twenties. She managed a large team of engineers, of which half were women, and provided my first real example of a successful engineer, leader, and mom.”

-Lotus Engineer

Imagine A Day Without Water

2020 has been quite a year – we’re in the midst of a global public health crisis from the coronavirus pandemic, which has highlighted the critical role that water and wastewater systems play in our communities to protect public health, safeguard the environment, and make a healthy economy possible.

Today, we Imagine a Day Without Water.

It’s a day to pause and notice the way that water systems impact our lives and communities, and commit to ensuring a sustainable water future for generations to come.

Lotus recognizes how essential water is for our communities to thrive and is committed to working toward a future that ensures all people have access to clean, safe, reliable, and affordable water.  Our philosophy is rooted in the belief that traditional engineered systems are most effective when integrated with innovative solutions that restore natural processes, optimize water reuse, and incorporate community insight and priorities to balance environmental, social, and economic benefits. Together with project partners, such as the SFPUC and King County, Lotus carefully considers potential equity and environmental justice impacts throughout our capital planning, project, and policy development process. Through this collaborative triple bottom line approach, Lotus is engineering solutions for a better environment while building stronger, more resilient communities.

We can all use our voices to speak up in support of water infrastructure by voting.

For many of us, this is the most important election of our lifetimes. It is increasingly imperative that we hold our elected officials accountable for addressing the climate crisis, fixing our failing infrastructure, prioritizing safe drinking water for all, and protecting water for future generations. Below are some resources about candidate views on water issues and information on how the voting process might be different this year.

• Election 2020 - How to Vote | state-specific voting information (Washington Post)

• Scorecard for the 116th Congress | shows how your elected officials voted on key water + environmental legislation (Clean Water Action)

• Trump’s & Biden’s Plans for the Environment | comparison of presidential candidates (NPR)

• Water on the Ballot | past + present ballot measures by year + state (Ballotpedia)

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FEATURED PROJECTS

A Playground With A View!

The McLaren Park Playground and Group Picnic Area is nearly complete! Lotus Water staff performed the final site inspection in early August on this important community project within San Francisco’s second largest park. The project, led by CMG Landscape Architecture, includes a new nature-inspired playground that is centered around a 20-foot tall climbing tower that will give kids amazing views as they play. It also includes accessibility and landscape improvements, native plants, as well as new stormwater management features such as permeable pavement and infiltration galleries. Estimated to be complete in the next 1-2 months, the project will add a valuable outdoor amenity envisioned to reenergize this area of the park and its surrounding communities.

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

Back to School

In alignment with Lotus’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, Lotus is partnering with the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) by participating in its community benefits program. The program’s purpose is to be a “good neighbor” to communities that are impacted by SFPUC facilities and operations. Through the program, Lotus endeavors to give back to these communities through volunteer work and donations.

One of the ways Lotus gives back is by applying its technical and environmental expertise to support the development of STEM curriculums and green schoolyards in San Francisco public schools, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academic Middle School, Bret Harte Elementary School, Leonard Flynn Elementary School, and McKinley Elementary School.

At Leonard Flynn Elementary, Lotus staff coordinated field trips to the Mission Science Workshop, where students of all grades do hands-on science lessons and experiments ranging from dissecting squid to building circuits. Other volunteer acitivites include bringing tadpoles to Flynn’s second grade classrooms and support the students and teachers in caring for them while students learn about their lifecycle and observe their metamorphosis into frogs. Lotus also organized a workday to reactivate Flynn’s rainwater cistern, by installing piping to bring captured rainwater to irrigate the school’s garden.

To read more about our community benefit work, check out this post on volunteering at Literacy for Environmental Justice in Southeast San Francisco.

New GI Grant Program is a HIT!

The SFPUC GI Grant Program has launched!  Lotus helped developed the program and will be providing ongoing technical support during implementation.  The first public workshop about the program sold out with over 100 attendees, and the first applicant has already submitted!  The SFPUC aims to award $6M in GI grants during the first two years of the program, with up to $2M max per project. Learn more about the program and how a grant could benefit you!

LEJ Volunteer Day!

Lotus had the privilege of volunteering at Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), a non-profit dedicated to promoting ecological health, environmental stewardship, and community development in Southeast San Francisco.  LEJ works to create urban greening, eco-literacy, community stewardship, and workforce development opportunities that directly engage and support local residents in securing a healthier future. Team Lotus got our hands dirty (literally!) in their native plant nursery by moving soil, cleaning seeds, and transplanting baby plants to replenish native plant stock for restoration projects in Candlestick Point State Recreation Area (CPSRA).  The team had a blast getting outdoors and rolling up our sleeves to contribute back to our community!