In Pittsburgh, Green is in the Air

It’s summer and that means the City is green with trees.  Not only are plants in the midst of their growing season, but people are in the midst of launching green initiatives.  Last week we attended a poster  session during the Who’s Who in Green Infrastructure Implementation event hosted by the Green Building Alliance and organized by 3 Rivers Wet Weather.  The event was packed with people interested in sharing their projects and learning more about green infrastructure. 

We brought along information on several of our green roof, green school, and green park projects.  At an elementary school in New Castle we were able to reduce the amount of stormwater piping and decrease the size of underground storage tanks through a combination of planted meadow areas, rain gardens, pervious overflow parking and fire lane, and a series of vegetated swales. 

For Whitehall Road Regional Park in Centre County, we are pulling out all the green stops by including rain gardens, steep slopes with meadows, vegetated buffer strips, infiltration trenches, and cisterns.  In addition, 44% of the total parking spaces are stabilized turf, which further reduces the amount of stormwater runoff. 

Our last poster featured our designs for the David Lawrence Convention Center green roof, the Allegheny County Office Building green roof, and the rain gardens at Seven Springs.

 

This morning over 80 people packed a Pittsburgh Zoo conference room to kick-off this year’s Green Workplace Challenge (GWC), a program of Sustainable Pittsburgh.  We took part last year in the challenge and are excited to enter again this year with the revamped program.  

This year’s GWC promises to be bigger, better, and have an even larger environmental impact than last year.  There are more points to acquire, more actions to take, and more resources available to help guide your business, non-profit, university, or municipality towards becoming more sustainable as well as saving money.  

Last year we saved 19.9% on our energy usage without spending a lot of money.  This year we want to reduce our energy usage even further by tightening up our building envelope.  We will also start to phase out our older lighting with new highly efficient lighting.  We highly recommend any organization in Southwestern Pennsylvania sign up for this friendly competition before the deadline on July 31^st, 2013.  Good luck to all participants.  Together, we can make a huge impact!

Permaculture, Community Revitalization, and Sustainable Design

A small, but growing, group of neighbors in East Liberty, called the Borland Garden Cooperative, have come together in order to develop a sustainable, multi-purpose urban garden that eliminates vacancy, adds vibrancy and biodiversity, and serves as an educational tool and community gathering space.   

Funded by the Community Design Center of Pittsburgh, Sprout Fund, and the Sarah Heinz Foundation, the Borland Garden Cooperative partnered with East Liberty Development Incorporated, Pittsburgh Permaculture, and GTECH Strategies to develop a unique urban garden model.  Pashek Associates was hired to develop a master plan for the garden in which energy and water will be captured, materials will be recycled and reused, and everyone who works in the garden shares tools and the harvest.

The group envisions the garden as a place in which the surrounding community can come together to learn, share resources, work together, grow together, and share in the bounty.  Some of the unique features of the garden include an urban food forest, traditional vegetable garden, water cistern, bio-shelter, rain gardens, chicken coop, outdoor kitchen and gathering space, and a labyrinth.   

Chimney swift habitat helps offer pest management as well as doubling as educational signage.  A windspire serves as a sculptural focal point as well as powering lighting.  Bee and butterfly habitat promotes pollination within the garden.  A sensory garden entices the public to walk up to, smell, touch, taste, see and interact with the garden.  Compost bins help recycle chicken manure, garden waste, as well as compostable materials from adjacent neighbors. 

The master planning process is almost finished but that does not mean the work is done.  The Cooperative will be out in full force to prepare for the installation of the rain gardens, cistern, street trees, and urban food forest in the fall. 

Promoting Green Infrastructure

Sometimes it’s hard to convince people that more trees are good or that the extra cost for installing pervious paving can go a long way later.  The good news is that the Federal, State, and local governments are starting to recognize the importance of green infrastructure in protecting our health, safety, and welfare in addition to future cost savings and improving the environment. 

For example, the Borough of Etna, Pennsylvania has had its fair share of flooding problems.  Located in the flood plain where Pine Creek enters the Allegheny River, Etna received millions of dollars of flood damage during the heavy rains of Hurricane Ivan in 2004.  Even during lesser storms, Etna is prone to flooding.  In order to help solve this problem, the Borough has recently secured a state grant plus some of its own money to install permeable sidewalks and rain gardens.  Check out this article for more information.

Permeable pavers such can help reduce flooding and the cost of flood damage.

Want to know the economic value of green infrastructure’s benefits for your community?  The Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) and American Rivers have released a guide that places an economic value on the numerous benefits provided by green infrastructure.  Download “The Value of Green Infrastructure: A Guide to Recognizing its Economic, Social, and Environmental Benefits” here.

What is Green Infrastructure?

When you think of infrastructure, you usually think of things like roads, sewer systems, water supply, power grids, etc…  It is the basic physical structures needed for a community to enable, sustain, or enhance a certain standard of living for its residents.   It enables the buying and selling of goods and services at a more efficient level.  Could you imagine your workplace without internet, electricity, or even roads connecting you to your clients? 

Wetlands and riparian buffers are green infrastructure.

 But what does it mean when “green” is placed in front of the word infrastructure?  Green Infrastructure is a concept that can, and should, be applied to all different scales of planning and design.  Basically, it includes everything from strategically planned and managed networks of natural lands, to working landscapes, to recreational landscapes, and other open spaces that conserve ecosystem values and functions.  In other words, greenways, parks, riparian buffers, wetlands, floodplains, rivers, and even stormwater Best Management Practices such as rain gardens, porous pavements, green roofs, and trees are all part of Green Infrastructure.  It recognizes the importance of natural systems and processes within our communities.

Green roofs and rain gardens are green infrastructure.

Why has Green Infrastructure become so important in the last 10 or 20 years?  Well, because it is beneficial for the environment, human health, the economy, and our society as a whole.  Working with and using natural processes ensures that we’ll have resources for future generations.  Stormwater BMPs reduce flooding, pollution, and the strain on our storm sewers.  Street trees beautify our neighborhoods, increase property values, reduce the urban heat island, and absorb air pollution and stormwater.  Greenways help protect steep hillsides from being developed and eroded, protect wildlife habitat, and offer recreational opportunities.  Constructed wetlands not only provide wildlife habitat but filter pollution and even human waste. 

So the next time you step outside, try to identify what types of green infrastructure are present and how they help to make your community a better place.

Project Corner: Whitehall Road Regional Park

We are proud to highlight this month’s featured project, Whitehall Road Regional Park Master Plan.  Located in Centre County, near State College, this future regional park is designed with sustainability and accessibility in mind.  The final master plan reflects the following project goals:

• Environment – Conserve and enhance natural conditions and features.
• Community – Respond to conditions and needs of adjacent and regional community.
• Program – Accommodate a logical mix and quantity of park uses.
• Economics – Maximize relationship between cost and benefits to community.
• Identity – Create a dignified and beautiful park space that improves over time.

The 100-acre park has to meet the growing demand for sports fields, while also accommodating those more interested in passive recreation such as walking, picnicking, and gardening.  The master plan includes soccer fields, softball and baseball fields, tennis courts, a football field, a lacrosse field, playgrounds, picnic shelters, walking trails, open space play, a dog park, and community gardens.  The existing site is open with dramatic distant views. The park is organized to respond to these conditions by creating a rectilinear pattern of outdoor rooms that connect directly to the adjacent agricultural context.  Proposed rows of trees extend the existing forest block to provide a pattern for the roads, walkways and athletic fields.  

 

Proposed stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) include rain gardens, permeable paving, vegetated swales, infiltration trenches, vegetated buffer strips, green roofs, and cisterns to name a few. The key is to work with natural ecological processes instead of against them.

Permeable paving and rain gardens reduce the amount of stormwater runoff

Located at the bottom of the hill, this cistern collects extra runoff for use in the community gardens

Rain Garden Myths

When people first learn about the term “rain garden”, they often have pre-conceived notions about them.  For example, some people begin visualizing a big hole in the ground that fills up with water and can be dangerous for kids.  We would like to clear the air about the following myths:

Rain Gardens are More Maintenance

Rain gardens require no more maintenance than your typical planting bed.  In fact, many common plants that are used around your home can be used in rain gardens.  Using native plants will reduce the amount of maintenance compared to non-natives.  It all depends on the types of plants you specify.

Rain Gardens Create More Flooding

My neighbor asked me once about whether the rain garden I installed in my own backyard would create more flooding in his yard and basement.  I quickly reassured him that unless I secretly piped my overflow into his yard, he would not have any flooding because of my rain garden.  A good overflow plan is important for preventing extra water from going where you don’t want it to go.

Rain Gardens Harbor Mosquitoes

Rain gardens are designed to hold water for up to 48 hours, which is not long enough for mosquitoes to breed.

Rain Gardens are Detention Basins, Ponds, or Wetlands

Rain gardens are none of the above.  They are similar in that they help store stormwater runoff.  However, they are dry most of the time and are not as deep as detention basins.

Rain Gardens Create a Liability

We’ve run into clients that do not want rain gardens because they believe they are a liability.  “Some kid is going to fall in and drown in a few inches of water that may accumulate during a storm event”.  Well, we strongly believe the benefits far outweigh the risk.  In fact, numerous schools around the country have promoted and used rain gardens as educational tools.  Below are just a few examples of rain gardens planted in public spaces or on school properties:

Mount Tabor Middle School - Portland, Oregon (photo by Kevin Robert Perry)

Highpoint - Seattle, Washington (photo by Juan Hernandez Mithum)

Neuva School - Hillsborough, California (photo by Andrea Cochran)

NE Siskiyou Street - Portland, Oregon (photo by Kevin Robert Perry)

What are Rain Gardens?

Rain gardens are just like regular gardens, except that they are sunken several inches in order to allow stormwater runoff to soak into the ground instead of flowing into storm drains and ultimately into streams.  They provide numerous environmental benefits as well as solving water problems.  Runoff causes erosion, pollution, and flooding.  Rain gardens help to minimize these negative impacts as well as enhance the beauty of a property.  

Basic components of a rain garden include: a stormwater source such as a downspout; an energy dissipater such as a splash pad or river rock; special soil to store runoff water during a storm and is able drain within 24 hours; plants that are both drought and wet tolerant; and an overflow plan for when a larger storm may fill up beyond the rain garden’s capacity. 

Basic components of a rain garden.

Contact us if you have any questions about rain gardens and how we can help you design one.  Below, are before and after photos of the rain gardens we designed at Seven Springs.  As you can see, the water from the downspout helped create erosion problems on the hillside.  A dry riverbed was created to direct the runoff from the downspout into the gardens.

Before

The first rain garden is dug.  The second is marked in paint.

Filter fabric prevents weeds from growing through the rock.

The end result is a beautiful hillside planting that includes two rain gardens.