Spreckels Design Competition

Siegel & Strain Architects

As part of a team lead by Siegel & Strain Architects, DC&E participated in a design competition that generated development concepts for a former sugar beet processing plant located along the Salinas River in Spreckels, California. The team’s competition entry included reuse of historic industrial structures, preservation of agriculture, and new forms of residential development for the twenty-first century, and creating a zero-waste resource strategy. The proposed community also protects prime agricultural lands by leaving a greenbelt between the existing town and the proposed community, which is further enhanced by a linear windbreak of trees that defines the edge of new development, and creates additional habitat and controls erosion. Green fingers, within the development, serve as links to the Salinas River and include pedestrian trails and vegetated bioswales. New family-oriented attached housing at a density of 25 units per acre creates a compact, energy neutral and walkable community. Some of the sustainable practices instrumental to the team’s development concepts included rainwater collection, use of gray water, riparian restoration, wind energy, photovoltaics, recycling and compost facilities. The final vision recommended that the property owners incorporate many of the ideas generated by the Siegel & Strain team.