The new $17 million clubhouse is a state-of-the-art facility with numerous features benefiting local youth and the overall community. Located on a former industrial site in the center of the economically disadvantaged Roseland neighborhood of Santa Rosa, the 25,000 square foot clubhouse features a commercial kitchen, teen center, art and dance studios, a STEM and technology lab, full-sized gymnasium, and playground. The project adds important capacity for Boys & Girls Club of Sonoma-Marin to expand its after-school and meal programs in one of the organization’s key service territories. The new clubhouse will allow the organization to expand over the next year, eventually serving up to 2,500 kids in the growing neighborhood.
Brelje & Race provided civil site design for the project, collaborating with the design team, contractor, and city agencies/inspector to develop solutions to numerous challenges. While centrally located, the 1.01-acre project site was constrained with minimal and antiquated improvements. The site was landlocked and only accessible via a private driveway. Civil design improvements to the private driveway were necessary to meet the City’s minor street design standards including curb, gutter, and contiguous sidewalk, as well as an ADA-compliant accessible path of travel to the public sidewalk. Necessary civil site improvements included replacing all water and sewer services, providing storm drain and Stormwater Low Impact Development (LID) facilities, and grading of the site to conform to both existing conditions and the adjacent future Tierra de Rosas/Roseland Village project.
The project made efficient use of available space, fitting a large building on the relatively small site. This high degree of site coverage complicated providing utility and storm drainage improvements by putting a premium on available space. For example, Brelje & Race reconfigured the site domestic, irrigation and fire water services to accommodate a PG&E transformer and switch gear when it became evident during construction that it had to relocate on site. Special attention was also required to find sufficient space for Stormwater LID features. Thanks to careful coordination of the engineering design team and architect, sufficient space was allocated for several bioretention basins and a biopod biofilter to detain and treat stormwater onsite.
The clubhouse project was made possible through the collaboration of a committed group of contributors: the non-profit owner and operator; the circle of philanthropists who generously donated their money other resources, including long-time project proponents Bill and Cindy Gallaher; the local leaders who championed the project; and the design and construction professionals who contributed creative solutions to a challenging site and accelerated timeframe.
The ASCE San Francisco Section’s annual awards competition recognizes outstanding civil engineering projects from across the northern half of the state. A panel of distinguished judges drawn from the Engineering field select projects for recognition in a diverse list of project categories. ASCE will officially confer the award at the San Francisco Section’s annual meeting and awards ceremony on September 20th at the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center.
The project has since advanced to earn a statewide award from ASCE Region 9 in the Outstanding Community Improvement Project category. This award will be presented at a luncheon on Friday, March 29th at the 2024 California Infrastructure Symposium at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
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