(picture by Emma Wnuk)
We had a spectacular rainbow this morning over CSW|ST2′s office that was too good not to share. We truly are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!
Archive | April, 2012
We Tell Details
23 Apr
(photos by CSW|ST2)
Now that’s what I’m talking about! That’s right, even though we are engineers here at CSW|ST2 we can spot good design when we see it and in the Bay area it is all around us. It’s at the grocery store, the brewery, the local coffee shop…it’s everywhere, and we can appreciate the time and effort it takes to make the smallest detail look right. Even though it may not be our design we are more than happy to tip our hats to those architects, landscape architects, engineers, contractors (and their clients) who provide us with unique details that turn the mundane into remarkable. Here are a few we found driving around this weekend: (from left to right)
- Gabion wall at Catahoula Coffee in Richmond
- Horizontal wood fence at Dogtown Development Co. in Oakland
- Parklet in San Francisco
- Vertical Bike rack at Pyramid Brewery in Berkeley
- Bioswale at Hamilton Marketplace in Novato (CSW|ST2 design)
- Pavers at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco
So next time you are out running errands take a look around and see if you see any spectacular details! You will be pleasantly surprised.
Habitat Recovery Along The Napa River
19 Apr
(Map by Jeremy Sarrow NCFCWCD)
Throughout our 58 year tenure in the Bay Area, CSW|ST2 has always participated and encouraged employee involvement in community projects and functions. This involvement often extends beyond the bounds of individual company employees to the friends, family, and contacts of the worker. Our involvement in the Napa River / Napa Creek Flood Control Project is a typical example.
This historic, award winning, flood project has been under taken by the Napa Valley communities with the support of State and Federal agencies utilizing unique flood routing techniques and philosophies to not only control flooding along an approximately 7 mile stretch of the Napa River and Napa Creek, but also brings the Napa River back into its historic flood plain by eliminating levees and recreating over 900 acres of wetlands. The project also protects some 2700 homes, 350 business, and 50 public properties from 100-year flood damage.
Dennis Rinehart, a principal at CSW|ST2 with in excess of 35 years of engineering experience, has served on a volunteer basis as both a member and Chairman of the Technical Advisory Panel, providing design and technical advice to the Napa County Flood Board since the inception of the project in 1998. Dennis’ involvement has extended to his family and friends as Napa County has utilized the expertise of both Dennis’ wife Suzin and his friend Dave Mallet as wildlife photographers in creating images for an interpretive signing program for the project. Some of the images offered to the district by Suzin and Dave are shown below.
Backsight – CSW|ST2′s History of Survey
4 Apr
We are fortunate here at CSW|ST2 to have four of Marin’s most experienced surveyors working with our firm. John Stuber, Dietrich Stroeh, John FitzGerald, and R.W. Davis have trekked and mapped Marin and Sonoma County for the past 50 years, helping clients and agencies record the history of land development in the North Bay. One of the most interesting aspects of having this much cumulative history is hearing the stories of what has happened to them in the field; we tend to think that surveyors just go out, take a few shots, and head back in to the office to give us our points. But do we really know what happens out in the field? We’ve decided to start a new series called Backsight where they can relay their tales and tribulations during their formative surveying years so we can get a better appreciation of what actually happens when they are out in the field. Our first true story comes from John FitzGerald:
Eating Alone For the First Time
I was born in New York at a very early age, and moved my family to California at the age of 3 months to seek my fortune. The rest is history. San Francisco was a great place to grow up. I loved the streetcars and riding my bike across town to the Embarcadero where I watched trains, the longshoremen, ferry boats, and wharf activities … and, of course, the Southern Pacific Railroad yards at the end of Geneva Street just beyond the Cow Palace. After college with a major in business and a minor in psychology, I went off to work for banking and insurance companies … wrong. I really wasn’t happy. It just didn’t feel right.
After I moved to Marin County in 1967 and struggling a bit more with work I didn’t like, I decided to go back to school. You know, all my life people had told me that I should be an engineer or something along those lines because I was a “double anal-retentive kind of person.” They always emphasized the “double.” Wow! Now it’s June 1970, and I have enough engineering/surveying classes under my belt to be able to find a part-time job and continue with night school … and, you know, that interview with Mr. John Stuber at Murray-McCormick Group on Grant Ave., in Novato went really well. I was hired! So I showed up, and was so excited.
“Hey guys, where are we going today?” “Well, we’re working on a topo.” “Where?” I asked. “Down in Sausalito.” “What kind of a job?” “We need a topographic map for a new sewer collection system design.” I exclaimed “Wow that’s cool. Hey let’s go!” So, we’re down at Gate 5 on the shore of Richardson Bay and the guys give me wader boots and say they have to get some elevation shots under the houseboats and the docks. “A little further out” they say. “We need a shot over there … and a shot over there … a little further out.”
I said “Hey guys, it’s getting pretty deep out here and the water is almost coming over the top of my waders … and there’s all this stuff floating around … and it’s really stinky!” “Yeh, that’s because their sewer systems just dump right into the Bay! The design plans we are doing will fix all of that and pump the effluent to the city’s sewer main.” “Oh, well that’s cool”, I said. “OK Fitz, just go out a little further.”
“Hey, guys, my boots are filling up with … uhh ugh ooh …” “Well, OK, just take one more shot over there and then come on back in. It’s lunch time anyway.”
“Yeh, listen Fitz, you kinda smell bad! Why don’t you go way over there and have lunch? We’ll be right here under this nice shade tree and we’ll call you when it’s time to go back to work.”
Man, I tell ya, all those guys are laughing … probably because of these damn flies all over me. Eating lunch alone is a bummer!
Well, I want to thank Mr. John Stuber for the opportunity to break into my new career.
(These 6” x 6” granite monuments were set during the re-survey of a portion of the Sonoma-Marin County line in 1881. Note: scribed “6” with “M” on one side ( “S” on the other side ). This original 12.5 mile straight line was surveyed with transit and chain. We measured within 2.5 feet of the original record distance. Because our survey crossed over the County Line we were required to file the map in both Counties. ( Bk 466 Maps, Pg 42/43 Sonoma Co. Records)
