PHOTOS: MIKE GRAFF
Completed in 100 days from initial concept to final
construction, the landscape architects worked with
the university staff and Manetti Shrem Director Rachel
Teagle, as well as the construction crew, to make the
compressed schedule work. Because the site was a parking
lot, the landscape architects over-excavated to remove any
contaminated soil and replaced it with quality earth and
then reused the road base in the artwork footings. London
planetrees and an existing sidewalk were maintained and
new olive trees (inherited from the Manetti Shrem project)
were added. Marq Truscott, former Quadriga principal
(now with Atlas Lab) and UC Davis lecturer, has used the
project to highlight problem-solving in the technical
landscape architecture classes he teaches at UC Davis. “It
has a nice little scale and a grade change, which works well
for students to see how to problem solve,” he says.
The designers had to create unique places and footings
for five sculpture pieces donated by Mondavi’s friends and
admirers. They also designed a pathway, using a low wall
system and decomposed granite, to naturally move guests
around the artworks and through the gardens. One of the art
pieces, a modern steel sculpture by artist Jean-Pierre Rives,
can be seen from the terminus of the museum hallway. The
intention is to draw guests toward the garden. “The spirit
and the collaboration and the focus from the top levels of
design on campus to the contractors who were building the
project was very, very interactive,” says Truscott. “In my al-
most 35-year career, it is the most amazing project I’ve ever
worked on.”
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