{"id":4206,"date":"2014-11-07T19:46:31","date_gmt":"2014-11-07T19:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blogs\/sacramentos-transformation-is-underway\/"},"modified":"2017-07-25T10:19:26","modified_gmt":"2017-07-25T14:19:26","slug":"sacramentos-transformation-is-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/sacramentos-transformation-is-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento’s transformation is underway"},"content":{"rendered":"

The state of California is the world\u2019s eighth largest economy. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson thinks that its capital city should reflect that\u2014with a vibrant downtown, greater transportation connectivity, and increased environmental resilience,\u00a0all leading to a renaissance for business and culture. This is not just an idea; many of the projects that would help realize it are currently under planning or construction.<\/p>\n

Mayor Johnson spoke about his vision during a recent visit to AECOM\u2019s Sacramento office. The firm is invovled with many of the projects currently reshaping the city. Johnson said he wants residents, visitors, business, and government to view the city as a \u2018can do\u2019 town.\u00a0He wants to make Sacramento a more business-friendly city through business infrastructure investment, as well as streamlining business and government processes. He spoke about the need for Sacramento to move towards a position in which public safety, culture, multi-modal transit, and technology are the pillars of a new vitality for the city. Lastly the mayor expressed his desire to enhance the Sacramento riverfront to include mixed residential, recreational, retail, and commercial uses.<\/p>\n

The development of the Entertainment and Sports\u00a0Complex<\/a>\u00a0(ESC), which broke ground last week, is the cornerstone for reshaping the urban core.\u00a0The city convinced the NBA to deny an imminent deal to move the Sacramento Kings to Seattle and embrace\u00a0plans for a new venue that would convert a dilapidated shopping mall into a city icon and year-round zone of activity. AECOM is designing the arena with a focus not only on setting the next benchmark within the NBA (as it did for the Indiana Pacers\u2019 Bankers Life\u00a0Fieldhouse<\/a> and the Brooklyn Nets\u2019 Barclays Center<\/a>), but also on creating a building,\u00a0public spaces, and\u00a01.5 million square feet of mixed-use development\u00a0that inject life into\u00a0their surroundings.\u00a0The\u00a0building\u00a0will invite the city to view the game from the outside and\u00a0offer views of the city from the inside.\u00a0It will open\u00a0what an SI.com article<\/a> calls \u201cthe world\u2019s largest patio doors\u201d to welcome visitors, create an indoor-outdoor environment,\u00a0and\u00a0allow unique summer Delta breezes to\u00a0cool it, reducing\u00a0energy demands. For the fans it will offer the next level of technological interactivity. The public spaces have been designed as a productive landscape, with\u00a0pistachio and walnut trees\u00a0producing nuts,\u00a0green walls\u00a0producing herbs,\u00a0rain gardens\u00a0managing\u00a0stormwater, and\u00a0other trees\u00a0providing shade.<\/p>\n

\"Kings_daytime\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two blocks from the ESC,\u00a0the Sacramento Commons project\u00a0would add over 1,300 new housing units, a hotel, and new retail\u00a0on four city blocks.\u00a0The Sacramento Housing & Redevelopment Agency also has plans to\u00a0redevelop an old public housing project in the River District into a new mixed-income neighborhood. AECOM has been integrally involved in both of these projects.<\/p>\n

Now the nearby Sacramento Railyards is joining the downtown transformation under the leadership of LDK Ventures. On their behalf,\u00a0AECOM is creating\u00a0a new\u00a0masterplan for most of this 240-acre redevelopment area, one of the largest urban regeneration projects in the U.S. today. Sports and employment center facilities are\u00a0proposed to anchor the project, including a possible Major League Soccer stadium that could draw a resident team. With the adjacent Amtrak station and\u00a0planned California High-Speed Rail (HSR) terminus, the Railyards could become an iconic example of transportation-oriented development nationally\u00a0and globally.<\/p>\n

\"Sac<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Railyards depot is\u00a0the seventh busiest train station in the country and will only get busier with planned transportation developments. A 13-mile rail extension, the \u201cGreen Line,\u201d\u00a0will\u00a0link\u00a0downtown\u00a0with South and North Natomas and the Sacramento International Airport,\u00a0reducing congestion and emissions along I-5. AECOM is working with the Sacramento Regional Transit District\u00a0to deliver it.\u00a0The proposed HSR system would connect Sacramento, San Francisco, and San Jose via two lines that converge in Fresno, and then travel south through Bakersfield to Los Angeles and San Diego. With California\u2019s Central Valley in greatest need of economic development, the Merced to Fresno section\u00a0will be the first segment delivered in a project that could spur a high-speed rail revolution across the United States. AECOM has had primary responsibility for the planning and environmental analysis\u00a0of the HSR Central Valley corridor since its initial phases in the late 1990s.\u00a0The Merced to Fresno section is the only segment to date that has received its environmental clearances and permits.<\/p>\n

Sacramento International Airport has already completed a new 19-gate, $288-million concourse and $408-million, 400,000-square-foot terminal building. AECOM led one of the two construction management teams that delivered the project four months ahead of schedule and $60 million under budget.<\/p>\n

\"EDAW<\/a><\/p>\n

Sacramento sits within the 53,000-acre Natomas Basin floodplain, which contains 83,000 residents and $8.2 billion in damageable property, protected by 40 miles of levees. Since 2006, AECOM has been working with the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the Natomas Levee Improvement Program, which will protect the metropolitan area for the next 200 years. This work has included multiple, phased and overlapping environmental impact statements,\u00a0reports,\u00a0regulatory permitting, as well as ecological restoration, cultural resources conservation, public outreach and construction monitoring. Current work includes ongoing environmental monitoring in the Natomas Basin and engineering design and EIR preparation for additional flood risk reduction as part of the North Sacramento Streams, Sacramento River East Levee, Lower American River, and Related Flood Improvements Project.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Johnson\u2019s city certainly\u00a0looks like\u00a0a can-do town, and\u00a0it will be exciting to see\u00a0how far\u00a0Sacramento has come just a few years from now.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Jake_89x100\"<\/a>Jake Herson (jacob.herson@aecom.com) is managing editor for AECOM’s Connected Cities blog.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state of California is the world\u2019s eighth largest economy. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson thinks that its capital city should reflect that\u2014with a vibrant downtown, greater transportation connectivity, and increased environmental resilience,\u00a0all leading to a renaissance for business and culture. This is not just an idea; many of the projects that would help realize it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":4207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[274,255,197,256],"tags":[148,191,202,214,280,237,187,108],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buildings","category-infrastructure","category-resilience","category-urban-design","tag-architecture","tag-connected-cities","tag-flooding","tag-public-space","tag-sacramento","tag-sports","tag-transportation","tag-water"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4206"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aecom.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}