Way. a Village. the NORTHSTAR: By Erik Skindrud, regional editor

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1 NORTHSTAR: L a Village ghts Way the By Erik Skindrud, regional editor The resort s village square offers a refuge and a respite from the cold and exposure of the area s slopes. The stout wood beams and natural stone that make the theme here are inspired by early 20th century Tahoe Mountain Architecture a style pioneered at the large vacation homes that line the region s biggest freshwater lake. PHOTOS BY D.A. HORCHNER/DESIGN WORKSHOP Landscape Architect and Specifier News

2 Visitors enjoy rinkside refreshments at Northstar s village shortly after dusk. The design team chose these area lighting standards by Valmont for their height and spread needed to achieve minimum foot-candle levels on the ice. Some of the more than 350 condominium residences planned for the development are also seen in this view. April 2007

3 A newcomer to the region s ski constellation, Northstar-at-Tahoe is blazing a trail in mountain resort design. Fired by demographic change, and a challenge from warming climate, the former ski area is creating features designed to capture a wider swath of visitor attention. Like Squaw Valley USA and Heavenly Mountain Resort, Northstar is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure its viability for decades to come. At the heart of the new thinking are new villages lushly lit, tempting visitors to linger into apreski hours. Restaurants and boutique shops offer non-skiing (and non-boarding) family members options, as does Northstar s outdoor ice rink. Tennis, golf, biking and walking paths are newly-important features that welcome visitors (and resort neighbors) and invite both to spend time when snow isn t the main attraction. The change in emphasis is transforming resorts in Colorado, California and across the West, says Ben Fish, project landscape architect at Northstar. There s a shift from ski resort to mountain resort, he explains. It s not just a conscious name change, but a use change to get people out into the mountains on a year-round basis. The wood-standard poles placed throughout the village use the same high-pressure sodium lamps that are mounted on the metal off-the-shelf poles that surround the resort s ice rink. The luminary is Life Style by LSI Greenlee Lighting of Carrollton, Texas. The project contractor is Rex Moore Electrical of Sacramento, Calif. Single-storey buildings at the ice rink s southwest end were kept low to preserve views of the landscape s native ponderosa and Jeffrey pine. Patio furniture is unattached to the hardscape to let visitors arrange furniture for family and other groups. Tahoe Mountain Architecture Landscape architects are in demand at the four-season destinations in a way they weren t at ski resorts. Creating inviting spaces for summer and fall demands attractive hardscape and planting details. Mountain weather also poses challenges, as a review of Northstar s recent construction shows. One challenge centered on adapting off-the-shelf hardware to fit the development s architectural style. Called Tahoe Mountain Architecture, the indigenous style is marked by hefty beams, local stone and earth tones. The team knew, for example, that it wanted to customize light-pole standards with wood exteriors. California manufacturer J.H. Baxter of San Mateo built the Douglas fir standards that reinforce the mountain theme throughout the village. On each pole tungsten lamps with cut-off shades direct illumination downwards. The resulting set up conforms with LEED light-pollution reduction guidelines, protecting dark-sky access an important component of resort ambiance. PHOTO BY D.A. HORCHNER/DESIGN WORKSHOP PHOTO BY D.A. HORCHNER/DESIGN WORKSHOP Landscape Architect and Specifier News

4 PHOTO BY ERIK SKINDRUD ABOVE: Arch-armed Valmont standards with shielded tungsten lamps spread light across the rink and square while keeping the surrounding skies Milky- Way dark. (Note the extended arms that hang over the rink itself.) Village shops are fronted with recognizable brands, but signage and ad space is limited to reinforce the resort theme. RIGHT: A close look at recently-installed pavers shows gaps and undulations that rankle the design team. The problem results from differential settlement of an insufficiently-compacted sub-base. The column bases on site are bolted to particularly-massive footings the 2 ft.-diameter concrete anchors extend 8 ft. down to resist mountain winds. Northstar (continued from page 94) The village hardscape raised related concerns. The master planners wanted a semi-permeable paver system that would minimize runoff. (A drainage system by Erie, Pa.-based Zurn handles most of the runoff.) The team selected a variety of paver styles with 60 mm (pedestrian) thickness, set on a sand and aggregate base. Months after construction, however, landscape architect Fish and others were dismayed when the hardscape which totals close to five acres on the site showed signs of differential settlement. Fish attributed the disturbing effect not to the local freeze-thaw cycle but to the mechanical installation method employed by contractors. Traditional installation by hand might have produced better results, he suggested. I m not sure the technology s there yet, or maybe the user wasn t familiar enough with it, he said. Site Impact and Mitigation How can a design professional compete with the granite-coated, pine-and-fir-shaded wonder that Sierra pioneer John Muir celebrated as the range of light? The answer, of course, is that competition is a mistake. With their Douglas fir poles, Northstar s lighting elements are one way the project seeks to blend into its surroundings. Some environmentalists opposed Northstar s expansion plan when it underwent public review in the late 1990s. The massive project, which one newspaper has pegged at $1 billion total, launches a new development halfway up the resort s slopes this summer. Called The Highlands, the expansion will add 1,450 condominiums and a 172-room Ritz Carlton hotel. Increased runoff into area streams and the cutting of native trees topped environmentalists concerns during the review process. To address these and others, developer East West Partners agreed to buy and preserve adjacent land to mitigate on-site disturbance. Another mitigation effort is replanting separate deforested tracts in PHOTO BY ERIK SKINDRUD April 2007

5 Balanced like a classic scale, the project s Douglas fir light poles meld with the European-flavored village s style. The design team opened the door to seasonal options by adding power outlets to each column, enabling the use of holiday lights during peak tourist season. PHOTO BY ERIK SKINDRUD the Truckee, Calif. region. Officials approved Northstar s original master plan back in the 1970s, which helped eliminate headlinegrabbing battles over the resort s current expansion. Northstar was cutting edge when it was planned back in the 1970s, project manager Tom Dunlap told the Sacramento Bee last year. It was originally entitled with over 3,000 units, but for whatever reasons, it was never built out. What we have done is essentially come in and updated (it) to complete the original vision. When Trees Fail The plan now being implemented at Northstar more tightly clusters development than the 1970s plan. The aim is to limit encroachment on the local forest, which was exploited for timber during boom years 140 years ago. Where the expanded resort meets native pine and fir, the design team specified plantings of aspen and Jeffrey and ponderosa pine to soften the transition. These plantings are limited, but their implementation yielded a few lessons learned near the heart of Northstar s village. Two years ago, a crew planted close to 300 pines and cedars and 375 aspen trees around the village and in the transition zone. Before many months had passed, however, an alarming percentage of trees had failed. In February, the plantings were peppered with dead orange trees in numbers that were hard to ignore. Landscape architect Fish explained what happened. The contractor didn t have a foreman on site, he said. The workers stuck the trees in the ground with the burlap and wire cages still on them. The labor crew was essentially let loose, unsupervised. It was a tough blow for Fish, who had invested extra weeks and hours shepherding tree stock from nursery to their new mountain home. Juvenile aspens (Populus tremuloides) of suitable quality were particularly difficult to find, but worth the effort because of the tree s icon status at higher elevations of the American West. The endeavor wasn t cheap. Once shipping and installation were added in, the per-tree cost rose to more than $300. Business Heats Up? Of course, how far future temperature and precipitation will stray from current averages is a hot topic this year. A February report by U.K.-based Halifax Travel Insurance says that climate change could drastically alter the winter holiday as we know it by Other recent studies make similar harsh forecasts for the world s ski industry, especially resorts at lower altitudes. Interestingly though, some projections suggest that higher-elevation resorts, including California s Mammoth Mountain and Northstar-at-Tahoe, could see a net gain in snow through Nobody knows for sure, of course, but Northstar s four-season redevelopment should keep the resort healthy and viable for the foreseeable future. Meet Ben Fish, ASLA Benjamin Fish of the resort-planning firm Design Workshop is the project landscape architect for Northstar-at-Tahoe s continuing redesign work. Ben Fish has worked as a landscape architect since graduation from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in In 2002, he took the national registration exams to become a Registered Landscape Architect. He is currently a licensed landscape architect in both Connecticut and California. In the summer of 2003 Benjamin brought his skills to Design Workshop along with an interest in mountain resort design and the integration of the natural environment through successful and sustainable design principals. With a focus towards green design and development, Benjamin has managed multiple LEED registered projects and became a LEED Accredited Professional in Today, Benjamin is actively involved as the project manager for over a dozen projects out of the Tahoe office ranging is scope from a public park in Tahoe City, the build out of the Resort at Squaw Creek, village design at Kirkwood Mountain Resort, the renovation of the Cal-Neva Resort and Casino, and the new Village at Northstar, where he also works in a construction administration role. As an ASLA member he is involved in national trends in the industry as well as regional chapter happenings. Aside from being a practicing landscape architect he is also a member of the Lake Tahoe community along with his wife in his pursuit of an active outdoor lifestyle. --Design Workshop Reprinted with the permission of Landscape Communications, Inc. From the April 2007 issue of Landscape Architect and Specifier News