Drew Goetting, Principal

Drew Goetting has over twelve years of experience designing and managing stream restoration projects.  He has worked extensively with complex teams of scientists, resource managers, regulatory agencies, and private property owners to achieve multi-objective restoration projects.  His work focuses on the technical aspects of fluvial geomorphology, flood control, and native riparian vegetation.  Mr. Goetting also brings significant expertise in public process facilitation and has conducted numerous community-based planning processes for local, state, and federal agencies.  As a leader in the field of environmental restoration, he bridges the gap between public policy, technical stream dynamics, and local community interests.  His background is in plant ecology, natural resource management, community and regional development, and landscape architecture.  He is an appointed member of the City of Berkeley's Creeks Task Force, charged with reviewing and recommending revisions to policies and ordinances related to urban creeks, and is a frequent guest lecturer on restoration.

Roger Leventhal, P.E.

Roger Leventhal has over twenty years of experience in the design, permitting, and installation of creek and wetlands restoration projects throughout the Bay Area.  Using geomorphology and applied hydraulic analysis, Mr. Leventhal designs restoration projects that combine habitat, flood protection, and traditional engineering goals. As a licensed civil engineer, he has prepared numerous restoration plans and has specialized expertise in constructability issues.  Mr. Leventhal is an appointed member of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission Design Review Board, providing guidance on engineering design and construction in ecologically sensitive areas within the San Francisco Bay, and is a member of the San Francisco Estuary Project Wetlands Design Review Group charged with reviewing the technical aspects of wetland restoration projects in the Bay Area. In addition to his role at RDG, Mr. Leventhal maintains a restoration engineering consulting practice, Farwest Restoration Engineering.

Robert Birkeland, ASLA, Senior Landscape Architect

With over twenty years of public sector landscape architectural design experience, Mr. Birkeland brings a significant portfolio of designed and built works to RDG.  He has a broad range of civic design experience including the design and construction of public parks, waterfronts, urban streets, gateways, wayfinding systems, plazas, fountains, trails, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and public housing.  Many of his civic designs have included artist teams, and as project designer his charge has been to integrate fine art expression into landscape architectural form.  Mr.  Birkeland’s project design experience has spanned the West, including Washington, California, and Utah, where he completed a series of Olympic Legacy designs for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Locally, Mr. Birkeland was the lead designer of the entry sequence and site design for the new Oakland International Airport, the Richmond Transit Center, and a series of public waterfront improvements on the Bay Trail along the Oakland Estuary. Mr. Birkeland oversees the Restoration Design Group’s project management and design.

Rich Walkling, MLA

Rich Walkling is a project manager and RDG’s business manager.  He is trained as an environmental planner with a master’s degree in landscape architecture and a bachelor’s degree in natural resources.  Mr. Walkling has managed watershed and estuarine projects in California, the Great Lakes basin, and southern Africa.  He has designed restoration plans for streams in California and for subsided islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta.  He has worked as a GIS analyst for USEPA-directed risk assessments and on USAID-funded environmental health projects in Latin America.  Mr. Walkling is a recipient of a Geraldine Knight-Scott Fellowship to travel around the world and study human adaptations to floods.

Jessica Hall, MLA

As a senior associate, Jessica Hall brings her extensive experience in urban stream restoration research, design, and advocacy to RDG’s Los Angeles area restoration projects. With a master’s in landscape architecture, an undergraduate degree in architecture, and experience in design, construction administration, and project management in both fields, Ms. Hall understands the complex range of issues faced by urban sites. As an advocate for ecologically resilient urban waterways Jessica Hall has become a leading voice in LA, giving lectures, appearing on television programs, and being the focus of local newspaper articles.   Through her outreach efforts, stream daylighting has become a restoration goal identified in many local watershed plans. In the field of architecture, Ms. Hall was the project manager and designer of the Archer School for Girls retrofit into a historic landmark building and construction administrator of the Laurel Avenue Housing project. Ms. Hall was a Switzer Environmental Fellow in 2000-2001, and a subsequent Switzer Leadership Grant recipient for her stream mapping and restoration efforts.

Jeanine Strickland, ASLA

Jeanine Strickland is a landscape architect specializing in environmental planning, site design, and restoration.  Ms. Strickland has worked for over ten years with public and private clients and community interest groups to develop master plans and construction documents.  Her portfolio encompasses public parks, children’s play environments, creek and wetland restoration, urban forestry, historic landscape preservation, healing landscapes, public housing and residential work.  Ms. Strickland has managed complex, multi-disciplinary teams of consultants in challenging community participation settings.  She is adept at site design, project meeting facilitation, illustrative presentations, and preparation of construction documents.  Her experience includes facilitating clients and community groups in environmentally responsible design practices, watershed planning, energy-efficiency (LEED), bioengineering techniques, and urban forestry. 

Erik Stromberg, MLA

Erik Stromberg is an associate landscape architect with a master’s degree in landscape architecture and a bachelor’s degree in biology.  Prior to joining the Restoration Design Group, Mr. Stromberg worked as a landscape architect on large-scale public landscape and mixed-use projects and as a field biologist.  At RDG, Mr. Stromberg brings together his expertise in science and design, focusing on the interaction between ecological and social processes within the built environment.  Mr. Stromberg has taught graduate level courses in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Computers in Landscape Architecture.  His expertise in computer applications in design and restoration work is instrumental to the firm.  Mr. Stromberg leads the production and graphics efforts at RDG, including report writing, illustrations, design, GIS, and construction documentation.