Rio Lakefront

LandDesign (2019-2020)

The premier shopping, dinning, and entertainment destination, Rio Lakefront is at the forefront of Gaithersburg, providing its residents with a unique experience.

As the primary designer of this project, my role was to re-envision the two primary open spaces at Rio; the main entrance lounge as well as the entertainment barge on the lake. The ‘fire lounge’ is the main entry to the lakefront, is an entirely new space, the vision was to warmly welcome visitors to their community living room, while the linear nature of the walkway, completed with custom-designed brick walks, lead the way to the existing lake-walk and central entertainment center. The Barge, a technically complex endeavor, is an extension of the existing boardwalk onto an exciting small on-the-water entertainment center. Purposed for casual gatherings as well as concerts, the barge included many technical details and cross-collaborations to ensure security, sustainability, and feasibility. Phase II of this project includes a challenging in-hill graded amphitheater facing the barge, to provide seating for the live performances.

I was responsible for many aspects of the projects, including conceptual design, planting plans, construction drawings, details, and documentation, coordination between cross-filed collaborators, governmental approval and revisions, client communication and presentations, and final product and construction of the site. Rio was an extensive collaboration with civil engineers, light designers, electrical and mechanical engineers. The project was successful built in 2020.

The technical drawings for this project are available here.