River Oaks Pump Station

The preferred alternative for the River Oaks Pump Station in San Jose provides a series of recreational activities, art interventions, educational demonstrations and natural habitat around the main bioretention basin. It transforms the infrastructure into public space. A perimeter path with exercise stations provides a chance for visitors to workout in a variety of ways. A stone seating area at the northwest corner of the site with trees provides a space for rest and shade. Two seating platforms overlook the basin and an elevated boardwalk that brings visitors into the basin. Art sculptures and educational signage tell about the natural processes at work in the bioretention basin. A demonstration rain garden captures water from the roof of the pump station. To incorporate more public art, a mural is proposed on the pump station wall. Pollinator gardens along the basin promote habitat and provide seasonal flowers. Another feature of the site is its adjacency to Riverview Park. The fence between the sites has been removed, creating views into the park and a direct connection between Riverview Park and the San Jose River Oaks Pump Station. The site serves as a compliment to the recreational programming in Riverview Park by providing a space for passive recreation, natural habitat, art, and educational demonstrations.

The pump station sits at an important point of ecological transition where historically the oak woodlands of the Upper Santa Clara Valley and Leeward Slopes rolled into open grasslands and riparian corridors of the Lower Santa Clara Valley which feed into the Bay Terraces. The plant palette offers an opportunity to evoke this transect on a site-specific scale, providing a range of suitable plants for each condition around the detention basin.