Dos Lagos Mixed-Use Development Outdoor Community Place
Address: Dos Lagos Dr., Corona, California - 2006
2006 AIA Design Excellence Award Winner
2007 APA Planning Project Award Winner
2008 Feb; Featured in Architectural Record
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The concept of Dos Lagos is to design open space as a means to draw various functions of the community together such as retail, entertainment, commercial, and residential. The ability to creatively address the need for place-making has led the lakes and waterfall to become a destination for residents and visitors alike. Dos Lagos is the story of reformulating suburban life through the recovery of a blighted industrial mining area and its conversion into a dynamic, self-contained community, providing space for a variety of activities. The vision is to create a fully integrated mixed-use community with a strong sense of place and identity in stark contrast to the voracity of suburban development in the inland Southern California.
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As users approach the lakes, they are welcomed by a pedestrian promenade and embraced by an 18 wide and 760 long bamboo garden armature that undulates and creates light play throughout the day. Made of renewable bamboo, structural steel, textured and colored light-weight concrete, and covered with American roses, the bamboo garden armature builds an environment that transforms natural elements into a human-made shaded community experience.
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The fundamental design premises for the 93 live/work unit complex include:
1. Two accesses and exits to the complex from adjacent streets in order to provide fluid circulation throughout;
2. The entry plaza created on the northeast corner of the site and along the main artery, visually and functionally connects the site with the Clepsydra (water clock) Plaza and cul-de-sac by the lakes. The building on this corner is four-stories high and celebrates the major diagonal axis of the site;
3. The horseshoe-shaped live/work building (consisting of 21, 3-level units) frames the recreational and community space creating a central town plaza and gathering place;
4. Vehicles and pedestrian paths connected to the fire lane loop are treated with pavers and landscaping reminiscent of a medieval village.
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