Fireside
client: Citizens Housing Corporation
scope: Landscape Architecture & Illustration
location: Mill Valley, CA
stage: Under Construction
bioregion: Mediterranean: Northern California Coast

The Fireside is a 50-unit, affordable housing development on a historic site in Mill Valley, California near Richardson Bay. The Fireside landscape features outdoor living spaces that express the site’s history and ecology while meeting the needs of its community. The existing historic Lodge’s chimney is restored and becomes the backdrop to the main courtyard along with a unique straw bale wall that punctuates the entry experience. The site’s cultural history is interpreted in the landscape through layers of shell and rock in the walls, paving and play details inspired by the site’s Native American shellmound geology. These details create opportunities for discovery and a link to the past. A rainwater garden collecting roof runoff using river stones and riparian plants creates a wildlife habitat and helps infiltrate water on the site - doing its part in maintaining the health of the San Francisco Bay.