From 2015 through the present day, RICK has remained committed to long-term excellence. Many of the firm’s most visible projects over the last 10 years required sustained involvement across many teams and disciplines.
Roger Ball’s leadership supported long-term projects by prioritizing collaboration across teams as work grew in scale and complexity.
In 2021, Kai Ramer became president after nearly four decades with the firm, continuing that approach as RICK’s work expanded into more public works and complex, multi-agency projects.
Civita
Civita is one of several long-running projects the firm remained involved with during this period. Beginning in 2010, the RICK team began work on the Mission Valley project, and it continues through today. RICK’s work supported the transformation of a former aggregate quarry into a large-scale master-plan community that includes residential development, commercial/retail development, parks, and a water reclamation facility. RICK’s role began early with the master plan and has continued across many facets of the site, including support with complex infrastructure systems and phased neighborhood development.
One major component of the project is Civita Park, a 19-acre park that carries most of the site’s drainage and water quality infrastructure. The park includes a gravity-fed waterfall and a waterspout geyser that rely on grade and flow rather than mechanical systems, along with bioretention swales and detention systems that treat stormwater as an inherent part of the park’s layout.
While Civita Park is just one component of the project, it reflects a much broader and long-term effort across the 230-acre site. The site layout includes residential neighborhoods supported by a connected layout of parks and trails, including an amphitheater, playgrounds, and a dog park. Over time, Civita has become one of the most highly recognized planning and development projects in the region, earning repeated industry awards for its planning approach and integrated infrastructure.
“From the engineering side, Civita meant staying with a project for the long haul with consistency and commitment to the client’s vision. When you’re supporting a community of about 4,700 residential units, you must think beyond any single phase. Our focus was anticipating what the site would need over time, so the larger vision could ultimately be achieved.” —Tim Gabrielson, Principal at RICK
Navy Pier Freedom Park
Navy Pier Freedom Park builds on the team’s experience managing complex sites like Civita. Freedom Park is located on Navy Pier along San Diego’s downtown waterfront, and once completed, it will be the largest veterans’ park on the West Coast. The 10-acre park is being built on a pier originally constructed in 1928, which must remain open throughout construction to provide access to the USS Midway Museum.
RICK is the lead design firm for the project, overseeing design across three phases that prepare the pier and support the development of Freedom Park. The work requires close coordination across RICK’s teams and project partners so the pier can remain open and operational during construction.
When completed in 2028, the park will open as the result of years of coordination on a site that never closed.
“It’s been one of the more complex projects I’ve worked on. Designing a park on top of a pier while keeping the USS Midway open has been a unique challenge. As engineer of record, I’m looking forward to seeing the park in use when it opens in 2028.”
—Nick Dorner, Associate Principal at RICK
San Diego International Airport
San Diego International Airport represents a different kind of responsibility. RICK’s work at the airport has continued through several major improvements over time, requiring consistency as the airport continues to operate and evolve.
Led by Principal Patricia Trauth, RICK’s Landscape Architecture team supported several earlier improvements across the airport before work began on Terminal 1. The project scope included streetscape and access planning, along with developing gateway features designed for durability and long-term use. The team also supported the Terminal 2 expansion with circulation planning for the transit plaza and site and landscape work for facilities such as the Administration Building and the Facilities Management Campus.
RICK continues to support the redevelopment of Terminal 1, where work focuses on arrivals areas, the general transit plaza, pedestrian connections, bicycle access, and broader landscape and mobility improvements.
Like Navy Pier, all work has taken place in an environment that never shuts down. The first phase of Terminal 1 opened in the late summer of 2025, with additional phases continuing beyond the decade.
Forward Movement
Across seventy years, RICK has evolved alongside the communities and regions it serves. From long-range master planning and regional infrastructure to development of enduring public works projects that benefit the entire community, the firm has responded to new challenges without losing sight of its principles. Rooted in experience and carried forward by its people, RICK moves onward with a commitment to projects that will continue to shape communities for generations to come.
“The most successful projects come from persistent commitment to both the work and the people behind them.” —Kai Ramer, President/CEO of RICK
Thank you for joining us in our 70th anniversary series sharing the history and growth shaping RICK over the decades.