A team built around how restoration actually works

Understanding the site before designing it

RDG starts with the site itself, not a template. Before a design takes shape, the team assesses the hydrology, the geomorphology, the ecology, and the community context already in play. That diagnostic rigor often turns up solutions that are better and less expensive than what a standard approach would produce.

The people around a project matter just as much as the site. Public participation, environmental justice, and interpretive design are all in-house capabilities at RDG, because a restored landscape only holds up long-term if the community around it understands it and feels ownership over it.

Aerial view of Refugio Creek's restored meanders beside a neighborhood

Founded on a simple premise

RDG was founded in 2003 by Drew Goetting to bring landscape architecture, planning, and science together under one roof, a direct response to how fragmented those fields usually are. The founding premise was simple: you can't design a great park without understanding the watershed, and you can't restore a creek without thinking about our relationship to it and how the community will sustain it..

More than twenty years later, that's still the throughline. RDG creates accessible, ecologically rich places, and offers the planning, design, and facilitation it takes to bring damaged natural land back to life, shaping spaces where people can play, observe, retreat, and reconnect with the natural world.

Client List

RDG has partnered with public agencies, land trusts, and conservation groups across California, from regional park districts to watershed councils, on projects that range from a single creek restoration to multi-year regional plans.

Capabilities

  • Site & Watershed Assessments

  • Site Management Plans

  • Hydraulic & Hydrologic Modeling

  • Wetland & Waterway Restoration

  • Public Access Design

  • Permitting

  • Construction Documentation

  • Cost Estimating

  • Construction Administration

  • Post-Project Monitoring

  • Interpretive Design

  • Graphic Design

  • Grant Writing

  • Public Meeting Facilitation

Awards

RDG's work has been recognized by the agencies, planning societies, and engineering organizations that set the standard for this kind of work.

Belmont Creek Restoration
(City of Belmont)

  • American Public Works Association Silicon Valley Project of the Year

Mount Umunhum Summit Project
(Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District)

  • California Great Places, American Planning Association

  • Excellence in Park Planning, California Park and Recreation Society

  • Excellence in Park Planning, American Society of Civil Engineers

Ohlone Creek Restoration
(Alameda County Flood Control District)

  • National Environmental Project of the Year, American Public Works Association

  • Northern California Environmental Project of the Year, American Public Works Association

Walnut Creek Nature Park
(City of Baldwin Park)

  • Planning and Design Award Winner, California Park & Recreation Society

Ohlone Greenway Upgrades
(City of Albany)

  • Award of Excellence in Park Planning & Development, California Park & Recreation Society

Sausal Creek Daylighting at Dimond Park
(City of Oakland)

  • Environmental Project of the Year, Association of Public Works Agencies

  • Parks, Recreation, Trails and Open Space Merit Award, American Society of Landscape Architects, Northern California Chapter

Johnny Carson Park Rehabilitation
(City of Burbank)

  • Quality of Life Design Merit Award, Southern California American Society of Landscape Architects (with AHBE Landscape Architects)

Centennial Park
(City of El Cerrito)

  • Award of Excellence in Design and Park Planning, California Park & Recreation Society

Davis Park Daylighting Project
(City of San Pablo)

  • Restoration Project of the Year, Contra Costa Watershed Forum

  • Environmental Project of the Year, Association of Public Works Agencies

Ballona Creek Greenway Plan
(Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation)

  • Westside Urban Forum Design Award

Pinole Creek Demonstration Project
(City of Pinole)

  • Restoration Project of the Year, Contra Costa Watershed Forum

Baxter Creek Gateway Project
(City of El Cerrito)

  • Restoration Project of the Year, Contra Costa Watershed Forum

Codornices Creek Restoration
(City of Albany)

  • Growing Smarter Together Award, Protecting and Preserving the Environment, Association of Bay Area Governments

Aerial view of the restored creek channel at Three Creeks Parkway
Two people jogging on a paved trail beside Sausal Creek