Officially a US Army Corps of Engineers flood control project, the three-mile park was digitally modeled to test hydraulic performance and an 80′ long scale model was built at the Corps of Engineers Water Engineering Station in Vicksburg, MI to test various design alternatives for impact to potential flood flows, sedimentation, and scour patterns.

The City of San Jose’s desires for the Guadalupe River improvements were multiple: control floods, create habitats for people and wildlife, transform the river into an amenity and a contribution to the renaissance of downtown San Jose, and help create a positive focal image for the city as a whole. Hargreaves Jones managed a team of environmental and ecological consultants, hydraulic, civil, structural, and geotechnical engineers with review by 14 agencies over a 10 year period to realize the multiple goals for the river park. Flooding on this narrow river occurs rapidly, with great destructive force, thus demanding unique architectural and engineering solutions that would be resilient but allow vegetation and habitat to flourish. The park’s design charted new territory for flood control, allowing the varied and sometimes conflicting desires for the project to be met. The park’s design and programming transitions from one end where urban hardscape plazas and terraced riverbanks respond to the adjacent downtown environment, to the downriver area where a braided landscape of earthworks and riparian plantings creates passive areas for strolling, resting, and play adjacent to residential areas of the city.