And the Winner is....

2022 was quite a year for Lotus! Having the opportunity to work on projects that tackle important water challenges and community priorities is itself immensly rewarding, and getting recognized with industry and professional awards — especially multiple awards — just sweetens the pot. Lotus is grateful for all the hard work our staff and project partners dedicate to seeking out innovative solutions that reimagine how we manage and protect our shared water resources. Here are just some of our achievements in 2022:

Orange Memorial Park Regional Stormwater Capture + Reuse Project

• Project of the Year, American Public Works Association (APWA) of Silicon Valley

• Environment + Parks Award, American Public Works Association (APWA) of Silicon Valley

• Outstanding Stormwater Capture & Use Project, California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA)

• Outstanding Environmental Engineering Project, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) San Francisco

city + regional officials and project partners celebrate the project’s ribbon-cutting in June 2022.

Completed in spring 2022, the Orange Memorial Park Regional Stormwater Capture + Reuse Project is the first project of its kind in Northern California, diverting flows from the Colma Creek Flood Control Channel into the park for pretreatment and harnessing the treated water for park irrigation and replenishing the groundwater aquifer.

Lotus has been honored to receive multiple awards in recognition of the project’s innovative design, which not only achieves multiple interagency goals around water quality, flood resilience, and sustainability, but was funded in part by a $6M collaborative grant negotiated between the City of South San Franciso/Lotus, Caltrans, and the Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB). The success of this project is helping pave the way for other regional stormwater projects being planned around the Bay Area.

San Francisco Civic Center Public Space Plan

• Honor Award - Analysis and Planning Category, American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)

Image Credit: CMG

Recently selected to receive the 2022 ASLA Honor Award in the Analysis and Planning Category, the Civic Center Public Space Plan develops a vision for transforming the heart of the City of San Francisco into a thriving public realm that meets multiple objectives—including inclusion, community, diversity, and resilience. Lotus Water collaborated with the consultant team—led by CMG—and various city agencies and stakeholder groups to develop a district-scale green infrastructure and water reuse measures ranging from detention, infiltration, and passive harvest-reuse irrigation all integrated into the redesigned social spaces.

The proposed sustainable water management plan could save 7.6 million gallons of drinking water, capture 2.3 million gallons of stormwater, and divert 5.5 million gallons of wastewater from entering the city's combined sewer system annually. The district-scale water system also proposes to provide an emergency supply of potable water during natural disasters.

Congratulations to all the teams - let’s carry that positive momentum into the new year!

Lotus Wins Overpass Challenge Award!

Lotus is excited to be one of three winning teams selected for the 2020 Greater Milwaukee Green Infrastructure Overpass Challenge! The contest, funded by the Tellier Foundation and administered by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD), is focused on reducing and treating polluted stormwater runoff, the biggest remaining threat to rivers and lakes across the US. Teams were challenged to identify new, innovative approaches to maximize the capture and treatment of runoff from interstate overpasses, while attaining other triple bottom line benefits such as activating otherwise neglected spaces.

Many cities are transforming transit underpasses—such as I-94 in Milwaukee—into public parks, replacing vacant lots, overgrown weeds, and dark passageways with art installations, pedestrian thoroughfares, and community amenities. (image: Google Earth)

Gathering Place by the Water

Water is of vital importance to Milwaukee, which sits at the confluence of 3 rivers and Lake Michigan. The city’s name fittingly means “gathering place by the water”, derived in part from Potawatomi (“manwaking”) and Ojibwe (“omaniwakiing”). Drawing inspiration from this rich heritage and identity, Lotus teamed with incommon to develop two prototype concepts that, in addition to achieving stormwater management objectives, would improve safety, enhance connectivity, and create gathering spaces for the community. Both designs would reconfigure the existing drainage pipe system from the freeway, connecting it to a new treatment system below, consisting of water treatment elements with the flexibility to be implemented individually or as a hybrid combination based on specific site conditions and needs.

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Sculpture Park

The Sculpture Park concept manages water with a distributive approach, using modular components that are flexible in their implementation. The existing freeway drainage system would be routed down to a baffle box element that settles out sediment and other contaminants. Baffle boxes would be housed in sculptures designed in collaboration with local artists, inviting visitors to explore and interact with the park features, while also providing educational information about local flora and fauna.

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Waterways Parklet

The Waterways Parklet concept is a more centralized treatment system well-suited for space-constrained sites, with vegetated wattle waterways that spiral down and around overpass columns, providing initial filtration as runoff is captured and conveyed below. The Waterways Parklet would provide air quality benefits, while introducing vertical wildlife habitat and vegetation to the site.

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renderings by incommon

Both designs finish the water treatment process with a constructed wetland and bioretention elements that provide wildlife habitat, public interaction touch points, and community greening.

Tune in Wednesday, February 24, 2021 at 10a PST to learn more about the Green Infrastructure Overpass winning designs.

Green Schoolyards From Award-Winning Grant Program

Earlier this year, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) celebrated the one-year anniversary since the launch of its Green Infrastructure (GI) Grant Program, the City’s first large-scale GI grant program that provides funding to San Francisco property owners to capture and manage stormwater through GI. The first year of the GI Grant program saw many milestones, including an applicant workshop with over 100 participants, 6 project grants totaling $5M in funding, and winning a 2020 Outstanding Sustainable Stormwater Program Award from the California Stormwater Quality Association (CASQA).

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Today, we celebrate another exciting milestone - the first two grant projects have completed construction, just in time for the rainy season!

in-ground bioretention basin

image credit: SFPUC

in-ground bioretention basin + mural

image credit: SFPUC

Bessie Carmichael Middle School

The SFPUC awarded San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) $0.4M, working with SFUSD’s Green Schoolyards program and additional funding, to transform the Bessie Carmichael schoolyard. The GI Grant Program funded:

• Site soil remediation

• A repaved and painted play yard

• A mural to promote education around the environment and infrastructure through art

• Three in-ground planted bioretention basins, and

• Four above grade planters to manage roof and yard stormwater runoff.

Altogether these seven stormwater management BMPs will manage 275,000 gallons of stormwater annually within the Channel Watershed.

Lafayette Elementary School

An additional $0.5M was awarded to fund stormwater infrastructure improvements at Lafayette Elementary School, integrated into SFUSD’s building modernization project. The grant funded:

• Two bioretention basins

• A large planted dry creek bed to manage stormwater runoff from the play yard and a portion of the roof

• New planters

• Impervious surface removal, and

• Educational signage throughout the yard.

The stormwater improvements will manage 350,000 gallons of stormwater annually in the Sunset Watershed.

Lotus Water continues to provide technical and programmatic support for the GI Grant Program, working closely with the SFPUC to develop the program guidebook, perform site visits at potential grant project sites, review applications and plan submissions, and provide construction administration services.  

new schoolyard with dry creek bed

image credit: SFPUC

dry creek bed

image credit: SFPUC

Read more about the GI Grant Program here.

Award for Holloway Green Street

The EPA recently awarded the Holloway Avenue Green Street Project with an Honorable Mention as part of its 2018 Performance and Innovation in the State Revolving Fund Creating Environmental Success (PISCES) program. The project (also referred to as the Lake Merced Green Infrastructure project) is located within the Ingleside Neighborhood and is one of eight SFPUC Early Implementation Projects that have been constructed or are currently being constructed as part of Sewer System Improvement Program. Completed in 2017, the project converts a nine-block stretch of an urban residential street and important bike route into a high-performing green street that also provides pedestrian and bike safety improvements. Parking lanes were reconstructed with pervious concrete pavement to manage roadway runoff and bioretention was incorporated into new corner bulbouts and sidewalk planters to manage sidewalk runoff while also adding greenery along the corridor. The new green infrastructure measures will remove approximately 1 million gallons of stormwater each year from the City’s combined sewer system.

Lotus Water led the planning, stormwater modeling and preliminary design of this project. Additionally, we are providing post-construction performance monitoring and analysis and performing maintenance inspections.

Read more about the PISCES award here!