Morgan Hill, CA
The Morgan Hill Public Works Dept and Yard was designed and constructed in 1989.
It was the first public project that Weston Miles Architects did.
It involved site design of the corporation yard, programming with
all workers from street maintenance to engineering and the coordination
and re-design of a Pizza parlor that was moved to the site. Although
this was 20 years ago, the adaptive re-use of the building and
relocation were clearly years ahead of sustainable design. The
reuse made sense since the building was in the way of a road extension.
Part of the design was also a toxic storage area for all materials
that were used through out the city. Clean out areas for trucks
and storage for all road materials were also designed.
In this case, the Programming process was unique as we were working
with a number of staff members that were not used to a Design process
and had specific concerns about the City and their work, we used
graphics with sketches and designed a complete site map showing
trucks, back up areas and how access and storage would work. In 20
years
no modifications have been made to the yard and toxic storage area
with the secondary containment.
The project was adjacent to the main Community Park where a number
of events are held so we recommended installing access for parking
during the day on the park site for workers, creating a cul-de-sac
with access that could then be controlled for events. This allowed
for limiting the amount of parking required on the site an important
outcome of the Programming process to keep workers cars out the
yard.
From a design standpoint although LEED and sustainability were several
years away, this was our first Public sustainable project.
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