An Integrated Team Saves a Key Campus Gathering Space

On a steep hillside along SR 73, Sage Hill School in Newport Coast, California, needed a town square to connect a new gymnasium and athletic facilities with the existing campus. With space limited within the campus, the only option was to carve a terrace into the hillside, but that created an array of challenges for drainage and stormwater management. The slope was constrained by a Caltrans easement, protected wildlife habitat and limited space for the building footprint and site. To further complicate matters, the new buildings needed to sit partly on structure and partly at grade.

Figuring out how to manage, store and treat stormwater around the building footprint required the focus and close coordination of an integrated team of landscape architects, civil engineers, plumbing engineers, structural engineers and architects. “It wasn’t just about managing water,” says Andrew Christiansen, LPA’s Managing Director of Civil Engineering. “Every decision would affect the larger project goals and required close coordination with the team.”

As it turned out, the issues were complex, but many solutions were relatively simple. To address the challenging drainage conditions, a slot drain connected to the rainwater leaders was integrated into the town square terrace. To limit the stormwater system’s footprint, the civil engineers worked with the designer team to conceal drainage vaults in landscaped space, and used trench drains to collect water in tight spaces. Soldier pile walls were strategically located to manage grade and provide support along slopes, allowing the building’s third floor to meet grades and provide access to the upper portions of the site.

“We turned a constraint into something feasible,” Christiansen says, “and something difficult into a possible solution.”