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District Wharf

Developed by PN Hoffman and Madison Marquette, with partners E.R. Bacon Development, City Partners, Paramount Development, and Triden Development, The Wharf is a public private partnership with the District of Columbia’s Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development. It is an ambitious project that has transformed what was once a low-density, commercial development strip into a bustling mixed-use quarter. Proactive investments in resilience and sustainability were key components of the development team’s proposal for this high-profile site. A strong vision for a sustainable urban waterfront helped the development team secure the site and advance this high-value project.

The Wharf’s 3.2 million square feet of development are located on 27 acres of land and 49 acres of water along roughly one mile of the Washington Channel. The $2.5 billion mixed-use neighborhood integrates many innovative ideas in waterfront design, construction, and operations. These elements include extensive and intensive green roofs, parks, and public spaces that manage stormwater beyond the District’s current requirements, cisterns to collect water for onsite re-use, a cogeneration plant for energy production, roof top solar panels, and a promenade and piers designed to resist storm surges and flooding. The revitalization project also is advancing economic and social resilience by providing opportunities for increased tax revenue for the city, high quality jobs, affordable and workforce housing, open space, recreation opportunities, and connections to nature in Southwest D.C.

The Phase 1 development of apartments, condominiums, retail stores, offices, hotels, restaurants, performing arts hall, and parking, as well as the waterfront park, promenade, and piers, was completed in the fall of 2017. Phase 2, in which broke ground mid-2018 and will complete in 2022, will include additional office, hotel, retail, restaurants, parking, marina, and residential development as well as significant public space improvements.

Mitigating Risk

From the start of the project in 2006, master developer Hoffman-Madison Waterfront and architects Perkins Eastman focused the design process on sustainability, authenticity, and connectivity. The previous 1950s-era commercial district on the site was composed of one to three story buildings housing large format restaurants and a motel. The buildings formed a near-continuous wall along the waterfront that blocked quality public access to the water’s edge. The Hoffman-Madison team leveraged the site’s location close to two Metro stations served by five metrorail lines to create a multimodal walkable, bikeable, and transit-accessible neighborhood, with full access to the riverfront and a new transit mode: water taxi, with service to other waterfront locations along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers.

The Wharf features a permeable development pattern—an urban grid with a walkable waterside promenade with frequent openings to Maine Avenue, the waterfront’s main arterial. The waterside Wharf Street, a woonerf-style shared street, is the ‘spine’ of the neighborhood, connecting apartments, offices, hotels, restaurants, shops, a 6,000-seat indoor performing arts facility called The Anthem, the historic municipal fish market, a food pavilion, and underground parking for 2,500 vehicles. The urban fabric is connected by 14 acres of public spaces, including a waterfront park, four new piers, a new marina, yacht club, and recreation pier for launching kayaks.

The master plan focused on “bringing the connective city to the waterfront,” with the greatest challenge being “on one hand, calling for buildings to be built up above the 100-year flood plain, and on other hand, permitting people to interact with the riverfront,” notes Perkins Eastman Principal Hilary Bertsch. The commitment to sustainability and resilience, she says, is found in the design focus on connectivity within the site, making development parcels smaller for better permeability to the waterfront, and public space that constitutes half the site and provides systems to recycle stormwater.

Along the water, the property line is set back 20 feet from the previous development line to increase resilience to flooding and create placemaking opportunities with a 60-foot-wide promenade. Buildings are elevated an additional 1.5 feet above Federal Emergency Management Agency requirements. Some facilities, such as piers and the marina, are “designed to get wet” in extreme events. While the majority of the newly developed buildings have been brought above the floodplain, a renovated historic building and other new structures at the historic Maine Avenue Fish Market rely on floodgates and panels during major flood events due to the existing grading of the site, which could not be modified.

“The public environments are where we’ve incorporated a lot of those sustainability and resilience features, using really robust materials, things that are going to last,” says PN Hoffman Vice President Matthew Steenhoek. “From an investment perspective,” he says, “we are not merchant builders, and we spend upfront money on beautiful buildings and systems that have a longer payback.”

The Wharf neighborhood is equipped with multiple on-site energy conservation and production sources, including a cogeneration plant and solar panels. A natural gas 250kW microturbine cogeneration system installed atop The Wharf’s largest residential building decreases the draw of local power, which is primarily coal-derived. The microturbine generates continuous, reliable, and low-emission electricity which will service constant electrical needs in the below-grade, two-level garage for lighting, exhaust fans, sump pumps, elevators, emergency power systems, and public restrooms. The electricity produced on-site reduces the cost of purchasing approximately 1.9 million kWh of electricity from the local utility, resulting in a significant annual savings. In addition, the 1.2 million Btu/h of ‘waste heat’ created in this process is used to heat domestic hot water for the residential building, resulting in an overall efficiency of 64%. Lastly, the cogeneration system generates fewer CO2 emissions than conventional coal-fired power generation, resulting in a CO2 reduction of over 1,400 metric tons per year.

The site’s stormwater management system is designed to capture 3.2 inches of rainwater on site. This value is more than twice 1.2 inches required by the city’s Department of Energy and Environment stormwater retention requirements, which are among the most progressive in the nation. About one-third of the site is permeable, compared to 10 percent of previous development. Green infrastructure includes living roofs that cover half the buildings, permeable cobblestone paving, and rain gardens in the parks. Mature oaks were preserved, and 300 new trees are being planted. Three large cisterns housed in underground garages can manage up to 700,000 gallons of stormwater, diverting untreated runoff from the river channel. In the past year, around 547,000 gallons of the stored stormwater was filtered, treated, and used for landscape irrigation, toilet flushing in public restrooms, and make-up water in the co-generation cooling tower.

Creating Value

The Wharf is designed to achieve LEED® ND-Gold rating in the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development program, with individual buildings achieving Gold or Silver ratings. The plan exceeds many of the requirements of the District’s Green Building Act and the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative. Sustainability was always a critical component of the project and was emphasized throughout the project’s Planned Unit Development (PUD) process with the D.C. Zoning Commission.

The extensive investments in energy and water efficiency are also projected to reduce operational costs. All stormwater will be reused on site, decreasing the need for potable water for landscaping and other purposes. Financial returns include savings on energy; at operating capacity, the micro-turbine will recover approximately 1.2 million BTUs to generate hot water, which translates to a minimum 5 percent in energy-cost savings.

The project also presents economic development and tax base-expansion opportunities for the District. At full buildout, the development is projected to create 7,200 permanent jobs and during the construction of Phase 1, over 8,500 people worked at the Wharf. The project’s for-sale real estate, retail, restaurants, entertainment venues, and recreational services will produce significant annual tax revenues for the city.

Upon completion, the Wharf we be home to approximately 2,100 residents. Social returns include new affordable and workforce housing comprising one-third of the approximately 900 rental units in Phase 1 and Phase 2. Half of the affordable units are reserved for households earning 60 percent of area median income (AMI) or less, and half are reserved for households earning 30 percent of AMI or less. The depth and breadth of the Wharf’s affordable and workforce housing program greatly exceeds the Inclusionary Zoning requirements elsewhere in the District.

The developers aim to employ District residents in at least half of the created construction and service jobs and have targeted purchasing 35 percent of needed goods and services from local sources and establishing a 20 percent ownership stake in the project through Local, Small, Disadvantaged Business Enterprise participation. In Phase 1, this translated to more than $388 million in goods and services going to the local targeted businesses. The new parks, open space, and recreational facilities offer many opportunities for healthy and active living and social gatherings, important aspects of a sustainable neighborhood.

The neighborhood’s diverse mix of hotels, culture, and businesses with affordable, workforce, and market rate housing is unusual in a “world class waterfront development,” says Elinor Bacon, president of E.R. Bacon Development. She notes that outreach efforts such as inviting local residents to help design the waterfront park and a free apprenticeship program that trains public housing residents for construction jobs have engaged the local community.

“Social equity and community contribute to resilience,” says Bacon. “Strong culturally diverse communities in which people know, respect, and care for each other build social structures that strengthen the fabric of community. This is something that drives us. These principles and strategies exemplify our community engagement at the Wharf.”

The Rose

Context

Creative partnerships were the cornerstone to achieving high sustainability standards while preserving affordability at the Rose, located in one of Minneapolis’s lowest-income and most ethnically diverse neighborhoods. The Rose created 90 units of market-rate housing, affordable housing, and supportive housing for the long-term homeless as part of the final phase of the South Quarter district’s redevelopment. The complex is located on a 1.65-acre former brownfield site surrounded by freeways, spanning nearly a block of South Minneapolis.

Lead developer Aeon partnered with another nonprofit developer, Hope Community, whose strong ties to the neighborhood ensured the development process was both inclusive and on target to meet local needs. In 2013, the Rose became one of the first affordable housing developments to be selected as a pilot project for the Living Building Challenge, a rigorous certification standard for sustainable construction and design.

While aspirationally pursuing the Living Building Challenge, the development team complied with the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria, a point and checklist system with mandatory considerations for sustainability, required by the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency as a condition for public funding. At the project’s inception, the general contractor and the design team entered into an informal Integrated Design and Delivery process, a contract from American Institute of Architects that jointly establishes energy budgets, bidding cycles, and life-cycle costs of product alternatives.

Innovative Water Management Features

  • Rain gardens. Up to 26,000 gallons flowing from the east quarter of the building roofs can be filtered through three rain gardens on site.
  • Underground retention system. A 48,500-gallon-capacity underground retention system captures the stormwater runoff from roofs that the rain gardens cannot capture.
  • Water quality unit. Before runoff reaches the Mississippi River, oil, trash, and sediment are removed from stormwater runoff on site.
  • Rainwater cisterns. Rainwater is captured in cisterns and reused in a 5,000-square-foot community garden that offers food-production programming on site.
  • Solar water-heating system. On-site solar panels heat 35 percent of the water used in the project.
  • Water-efficient fixtures. To reduce potable water use, the Rose installed 1.5-gallon-per-minute (gpm) maximum-flow showerheads, 1.5 gpm maximum-flow kitchen faucets, 0.5 gpm bathroom faucets, and 0.8-gallon-per-flush toilets.

Value Proposition

An independent third party, the Weidt Group, estimates the payback period for the Rose’s sustainable features is 11.4 years. Potable water use at the Rose has decreased by an estimated 47 percent since water-conserving features were installed. By design, the Rose exceeds the city’s water consumption standards nearly by half, with a system that uses up to 35.6 gallons of water per capita per day. After these sustainability and water management features were implemented and over half the units were set aside for low-income and formerly homeless tenants, construction costs still came to only $156 per square foot.

Leslie Roering, project manager in housing development at Aeon, notes, “Our goal was to transform the blighted, contaminated site into a place of refuge. We incorporated 33 percent green space, fully accessible tree-lined walkways, and gathering spaces that serve as buffers to streets. Underground parking frees up space for use by people instead of cars, and a band of rain gardens infiltrates 90 percent of rainwater collected on the roof and site and feeds it into cisterns for reuse in the community garden.”

“We focused on finding the highest return on investment for each design strategy. For example, every design element had a goal to provide more than one benefit; it also had to bolster the performance of another system or component. Thus, we were able to evaluate on a building-wide basis the right balance of life-cycle cost, first cost, durability, and energy and water savings.” Leslie Roering, Project Manager in Housing Development, Aeon

The Rose’s commitment to sustainable, healthy, and affordable housing has earned it numerous awards and accolades, including the ULI Jack Kemp Excellence in Affordable and Workforce Housing Award, the AIA Minnesota Honor Award, and the Environmental Initiatives Award, Energy & Climate category.

Lessons Learned

  • On-site contamination can be remediated when stormwater capture is integrated at different levels of design. The Rose, developed on a former brownfield site surrounded by freeways, cleans stormwater runoff and conserves potable water through rainwater harvesting systems and water-efficient fixtures.
  • Affordable and supportive housing can be preserved while achieving a high level of sustainability. The Rose’s sustainability features have an estimated payback period of just over 11 years. This investment was viable for the project, although over half the units are for low-income families and formerly homeless people.
  • Creative partnerships between design and construction teams are essential to forecast and mitigate costs at the inception of a development. The general contractor was informally integrated into the design team at the inception of the Rose’s development, containing costs for construction to $156 per square foot.

The Avenue

Context

Completed in 2011, the Avenue has an active streetscape that has become a popular destination for visitors, office workers, residents, and students in downtown Washington. The project came out of an urban design study for the disused parcel that previously held the George Washington University Hospital, which was also Square 54 of the original Washington plan.

The project is the result of a partnership between George Washington University and Boston Properties Inc. under a 60-year lease that has since provided funding for the construction of the university’s Science and Engineering Hall and contributed an estimated $11.5 million in annual city tax revenues. The ground lease terms were based on the amount of developable space rather than the possible floor/area ratio (FAR), which led the development team to create a courtyard concept slightly below FAR opportunities. A key requirement for the design of the building was a below-grade loading dock, which also created the opportunity for an interior courtyard above it.

Sustainable design can be found throughout the Avenue. Green and lightly colored roofs absorb less heat than conventional black roofs, thereby decreasing peak roof surface temperature by approximately 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The Avenue also uses a high-efficiency irrigation system and native and drought-tolerant plants, which reduce the amount of water needed by an estimated 62 percent.

Innovative Water Management Features

  • Green roofs. An extensive 8,000-square-foot green roof is spread equally across the office and residential buildings. This green roof system comprises a water retention layer, a drainage layer, filter fabric, engineered soil, and succulent plantings. On the residential roof, more than 300 linear feet of raised planters with tall evergreen hedges shield the pool and terraces from sight and wind.
  • Stormwater treatment and reuse system. Water is absorbed by the green roofs and then sent through interior piping into the stormwater filter, which includes two sand filters, an ultraviolet sterilizer, and an ionizer that kills algae, bacteria, and viruses without the use of extra chemicals. This system allows plants to grow directly in the water feature and requires less maintenance than a standard infiltration system. Water is then recirculated into the 7,500-gallon cistern, which is located underneath the courtyard, within the five-level parking garage below. Irrigation water is pumped directly from the cistern, and all other stored rainwater is continuously pumped through the courtyard water feature and treatment system. The development’s robust stormwater management system for collecting, treating, and reusing rainwater in an inviting courtyard is able to manage an estimated 76,000 gallons of stormwater.
  • Courtyard water feature. The attractive water feature doubles as a stormwater container, holding roughly 15,000 gallons of water that has been recirculated through the cistern and treatment system. The courtyard’s water feature is 100 percent supplied by reclaimed stormwater. The water feature includes aquatic vegetation in perforated planters that allow the roots to provide supplemental filtration.

Value Proposition

The Avenue has been a resounding commercial success. It achieved the highest residential rents in the city for a project of its size and had a relatively fast lease-up: 11 months for 335 apartments. The commercial space also attracted tenants quickly. “By every metric, the project has exceeded expectations,” says Richard Ellis of Boston Properties. Ellis attributes this success to a variety of factors, including the location, the quality
of construction, and the design of the courtyard space. Beyond serving as an attractive public space, the courtyard has enhanced views throughout the development. “There’s no such thing as a bad or back view,” explains Ellis. “Some people look at a green courtyard; some look at a busy commercial corridor.”

“Most of the users don’t think of the courtyard as a stormwater strategy, but it is. And it has created an open space in the interior of a city block that’s really unique.” Richard Ellis, Vice President, Boston Properties

Lessons Leaned

  • The courtyard water feature has provided residents with significant amenity value. The courtyard is an extremely popular amenity for residents, office workers, and members of the public. Beyond improving public spaces, the courtyard also enhances views for residences and offices, thereby contributing to the desirability of the project and the real estate value.
  • Innovative design can create additional water storage capacity. The design team was interested in creating more water storage than was available in the 7,500-gallon cistern. “We were constrained by the size of the cistern because of the premium for parking,” explains designer Matt Langan of Sasaki. Instead of proposing a larger cistern in the parking structure, the landscape architects designed the water feature to be unusually deep, with water circulating in and out from the cistern and infiltration system.

Penn Park

Context

The University of Pennsylvania acquired the Penn Park site primarily from the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). The park site was part of a larger surplus property disposal deal with the USPS, when the agency downgraded its landholdings in Philadelphia. The park site was previously used for a vehicle maintenance facility and parking lot and included or bordered a web of infrastructure, including a high-speed-rail track, a commuter-train line, freight-train tracks, and two major downtown connections.

USPS disposed of its 30th Street holdings as one parcel rather than subdividing contiguous properties. The university retained and developed the open parking and storage component of the disposed properties as Penn Park. For the remainder, the university entered into a ground lease arrangement with Brandywine Realty Trust, which has constructed a residential tower, a garage rooftop park, and the mixed-use corporate FMC Tower. Finally, the historic circa 1930 post office was fully turned over from Penn to the trust, which has restored and rehabilitated it for use as offices for the Internal Revenue Service.

The new park would support adjacent recreational and athletic facilities and also presented the opportunity to innovate with water management. “Penn Park was one of a handful of early examples of following Philadelphia Water’s stormwater regulations,” explains Hollenberg. “We were a big and visible early example of the kind of stormwater management the Philadelphia Water Department wanted to implement.” The design of the park would also respond to the university’s first Climate Action Plan, which included water management objectives. In addition, a separate Stormwater Management Plan explored possible sites, tools, and best practices for the entire campus.

“We could manage our stormwater requirements on campus by putting everything out of sight and underground. But we recognize that the rain gardens and the visible green roofs are a way to convey to people that we are taking water seriously even to the extent of introducing new landscape typologies to the campus.” – David Hollenberg, University Architect, University of Pennsylvania

Today, Penn Park includes passive park space, two multipurpose turf fields, 12 tennis courts, a natural-grass hockey field, a softball field, concessions space, a press box, spectator stands, a food orchard, and a  student-run apiary. The entire park is open to the public, and community members can rent field and recreational space. Sculptural landforms connect the different functions and grade levels, creating a pedestrian circulation network that showcases the historic infrastructural forms remaining—in particular, the CSX train trestle overhead, still in active use on the site.

Innovative Water Management Features

  • Bioswales, rain gardens, and meadows. The park can reclaim about an inch and a half of rainwater. Natural features of the park designed to capture stormwater include meadow plantings, bioswales that cover roughly three-quarters of an acre, and nearly 570 newly planted trees. The meadow aesthetic was new to the campus.
  • Cistern and associated underground infrastructure. An underground 300,000-gallon cistern collects runoff from the adjacent turf athletic fields, which are porous and collect roughly 2 million gallons of stormwater per year. In the first five years of use, the cistern has never needed to be emptied manually on account of filling to capacity. The park also includes further underground infrastructure to accommodate its location: for example, an underground support system ensures that the weight from the berms and meadow plantings is evenly distributed and does not disrupt the adjacent rail line.

Value Proposition

The park has helped the university achieve some of its masterplanning goals, creating new open space and better connecting the campus and the community. Today, the park hums with activity and offers commuters a scenic link across a previously fenced-off, inaccessible site. The park has also become a site for student and faculty environmental research and pilot projects such  as the orchard and apiary. Faculty members and students are continuing to identify new opportunities for on-site research and are currently looking into adding groundwater monitoring wells. A first test of the park’s water management mechanisms came in 2011 in the month before the ribbon-cutting, when Philadelphia experienced 13.6 inches of rain, a city record for rainfall in a
month. Shortly afterward, Hurricane Irene brought nearly six inches of rainfall in 12 hours, bringing the Schuylkill River to its highest level in 140 years. University president Amy Guttman notes that “our state-of-the-art drainage system had obviously worked. . . . It was put to the ultimate test with Irene far sooner than we could have expected, and it passed with flying colors.”

Lessons Learned

Maintenance required a significant learning curve. The water-rich bioswales of Penn Park, as well as the monitoring systems in place, were new to the campus and initially presented challenges to the university’s grounds crew. “It’s a full-time job to keep it managed and operated,” explains Bob Lundgren, the university landscape architect. “We’re always learning more.” Challenges have included:

  • Monitoring systems. Instruments that measure the dryness and wetness of soil require fluency with the system for all involved. “It’s great to have a smart system, but you have to remember to turn things on and off, and if you don’t reboot it, it’s not going to work,” explains Lundgren, recounting an instance when a stuck-open valve led to significant water loss.
  • Bioswale and meadow landscapes. Bioswales, which hold water and allow it to seep into the earth, require a very different maintenance approach from grass surfaces. Penn Park’s bioswales sit within a meadow, featuring a range of upland plantings. When disturbances occur and soils erode, weeds can become prevalent and spread, which is a particular challenge for the  university, given policies against pesticides or herbicides.
  • Deicing. The university uses EnvironMelt, a less caustic deicing material, instead of rock salts that might contaminate the water in the cistern.

Meier & Frank Delivery Depot

Context

The combined sewer system in Portland strains the area’s watersheds, forcing the city to invest in pipe expansion projects in hopes of protecting its rivers for salmon and other sensitive local species. Renee Loveland, the sustainability manager at Gerding Edlen, explains that “dealing with stormwater has always been a sensitive issue and a priority for the city.” Redevelopment of the historic Meier & Frank depot was an opportunity for the redevelopment team and the building’s tenants to promote green infrastructure and endorse best practices in stormwater management.  Construction was completed in 2012, resulting in an extremely high-functioning building and LEED Platinum certification. Although going above LEED Gold standards cost roughly 2 percent of the total construction budget, incentives related to energy and water efficiency, which accrued to the project, resulted in a payback period of only seven and a half years.

Located in the Pearl District of downtown Portland, today’s Meier & Frank depot is a beautiful blend of historic preservation and innovative stormwater management technologies. A top priority was maintaining the integrity of the building’s 1928 facade through the retrofit process. To that end, double-paned, energy efficient replicas of the old single-paned historic windows were commissioned from a local glazing fabricator, and the original penthouse addition on level five was scaled back to comply with historic sightline requirements. Vestas, a renewable energy system producer, manages and occupies most of the building, which is home to its North American headquarters.

Innovative Water Management Features

  • Concrete cistern. The 169,000-gallon cistern collects water from the green roof for reuse both outside and within the building. A new floor had to be poured at grade after interior demolition was complete, so using the space below to install a basic concrete cistern was a cost-effective and practical strategy.
  • Real-time monitoring. Vestas installed extensive submetering to track equipment performance and follow the building’s consumption patterns. The monitoring system allowed the company to identify at least one contractor error early on, resulting in significant avoided losses compared to identifying the problem from a spike in utility bills.
  • Bioswales and urban landscaping. The  building comprises a full 200-by-200-foot city block and is surrounded by bioswales on all four sides. These were partially funded by a Green Investment Fund operating through the local Bureau of Environmental Services.

Value Proposition

Gerding Edlen asserts that investment in green infrastructure and the building’s energy-efficient design have added value to the Meier & Frank depot and introduced opportunities for operational cost savings. The real-time monitoring has helped track energy and water consumption patterns for the building, keeping extra costs associated with high resource use to a minimum. Reusing captured water for three major nonpotable uses also lowers operational costs.

The redevelopment of the Meier & Frank depot and the arrival of Vestas also represented a value proposition for  Portland. The city sought to attract the tenant and was partially successful because of its offer of the historic Meier & Frank depot as a headquarters building. After making the decision to open its North American headquarters in Portland, Vestas was heavily involved in the redevelopment process, taking a more hands-on role than a typical commercial tenant.

Lessons Learned

  • Innovative water management and recycling techniques can be achieved in the context of a historic building. The Meier & Frank Delivery Depot maintains its historic facade and charm while incorporating innovative water management technologies, some of which are invisible to passers-by.
  • Stormwater management can be part of a holistic workplace health philosophy. According to Loveland, Vestas “took a European approach to healthy workplaces, which is becoming more and more the type of design approach for highly sustainable buildings in this market.” Along with water management, healthy workplace practices include prioritizing natural light; incorporating visible, enticing staircases; and providing employees with direct views of the outdoors.
  • Water reuse strategies need to consider the building occupant. When the building first opened, reused water in the building was treated according to code requirements but was discolored, making users uncomfortable. The building switched to piped water for about a month while the tank was cleaned, which removed residue that had accumulated during construction. Since then, only minor variations in color have occurred and no further complaints have been heard. Building management also markets the green efforts, including signs reading “We flush with rainwater” to raise awareness about this environmental accomplishment at the building.
  • The opportunity for a green, resource-efficient building won Portland a high-profile new company. The vision for the Meier & Frank depot, including the water management strategy, ultimately was a successful economic development tool for the city. The water and energy-efficient vision for the Meier & Frank depot paralleled priorities of a high-profile company, becoming a successful economic development tool for the city.

Market at Colonnade

Context

The Colonnade site is located adjacent to the Falls Lake watershed, which is largely restricted from commercial development. The site required rezoning from office and institutional to commercial use, and stormwater runoff and water quality were key concerns for community members. “What led us down this path was the zoning and the desire for community support and support from the elected officials,” explains Chris Widmayer, vice president of investments for Regency Centers. The small site also did not have space to accommodate a traditional stormwater management device such as a surface stormwater pond or wetland and still achieve the development objectives.

The engineering solution was a rain chain, linking a number of stormwater management practices to capture, detain, treat, infiltrate, and reuse stormwater. The approach reduced runoff from the predevelopment condition by roughly 98 percent. “The holy grail of stormwater is that a drop of rain infiltrates the ground generally where it falls . . . and recharges the aquifer there. That was the ultimate goal,” explains Widmayer. The team sought to capture all runoff from a one-inch rain event and infiltrate it into the underlying soils and detain runoff from both two-year and ten-year design storms. By infiltrating the “firstflush” runoff, the stormwater system exceeds water quality requirements. The system was also designed to reuse harvested rooftop rainwater for both landscape irrigation and indoor use in the toilet system.

“This shopping center has less stormwater runoff than my house—and, actually, a lot less. Almost all of it gets captured by the system on site. Not only do you have the volume captured, but also the associated pollutants that have a negative impact on our drinking water.” Chris Widmayer, Vice President of Investments, Regency Centers

Regency Centers used a North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund grant for the project’s green infrastructure features. This grant contributed toward the cost of the stormwater components of the project, which totaled roughly $727,000.

Innovative Water Management Features

  • Cisterns. Three rainwater-harvesting cisterns—one above ground and two subsurface—can collect up to 43,000 gallons of stormwater runoff. Water from the above-ground cistern is reused within Whole Foods Market for toilet flushing, while water from the below-ground cisterns is used for landscaping.
  • Subsurface infiltration system. The subsurface infiltration system includes 2,500 linear feet of gravel and pipe trench, typically four feet wide and 3.5 feet deep. The system allows approximately 15,000 cubic feet of temporary storage, permitting infiltration into the underlying sandy loam soils.
  • Bioswales and bioretention space. A 250-square-foot grass-lined bioretention area and 450 feet of bioswale capture and treat runoff from the shopping center’s parking lot and further promote infiltration.
  • Landscape irrigation system. The landscape irrigation system uses harvested water from the underground cisterns to irrigate turf and landscaped areas on the site, as well as provides for
    additional infiltration and groundwater recharge within the remaining wooded area on site.
  • Underground detention chamber. An additional 350,000 gallons of rainwater can be temporarily stored in the 48,100-cubic-foot underground detention chamber.

Value Proposition

Although proud of the environmental accomplishments of the site, the development team also describes its investment in stormwater technology as a savvy means of achieving the land’s highest and best use. Mark Peternell, Regency Centers vice president for sustainability, explains that “by avoiding the need for an above-ground pond, we had the buildable space we needed to construct a profitable retail center.” Widmayer also emphasizes that the approach works “to enhance development rights and provide density with much cleaner outcomes and cleaner water.”

The Regency  Centers team credits its environmental consultants for developing a sophisticated and innovative response to the needs of the constrained site. The team has since received detailed information on how the stormwater management mechanisms have functioned from North Carolina State University researchers, who monitored the site 12 months after its installation and compared its performance to that of sites with similar development conditions. The researchers found that the system took in approximately 130 percent more stormwater than a traditional system, with less than 5 percent of water flowing out, compared to a traditional system. Monitoring results indicated that in the first year a total of 30.6 inches of rainfall was measured on the site, of which only 0.6 inches was released from the site, the difference being infiltrated or reused on site.

Lessons Learned

  • Visible green infrastructure can be a marketing boon for a sustainability-minded tenant. Whole Foods chose to feature the above-ground cistern next to its entrance . The cistern became a memorable symbol of the retailer’s values and commitment to sustainability.
  • Stormwater can be harvested and managed even on highly impervious sites. Although the site was 80 percent impervious after development, the stormwater management system captures the one-inch rainfall without discharge and can detain up to a ten-year design storm. Researchers from North Carolina State found that the site greatly outperforms nearby sites with higher percentages of permeable surface.
  • Green infrastructure can save space and free up developable land, particularly in comparison to a retention pond alternative. Green infrastructure made retail development feasible on this 6.25-acre site, which could not have accommodated a traditional wet detention pond, the retail facilities, and parking.
  • Water management mechanisms can be an effective part of a real estate project’s community engagement strategy, particularly in environmentally sensitive areas. The need for rezoning initially inspired the development team to take an innovative approach to stormwater management. Using stormwater technologies allowed the site to meet environmental requirements and achieve support from the surrounding community.

 

Canal Park

Context

Developer and property manager WC Smith led the creation of the park as a component of the District of Columbia’s Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, which sought to reinvigorate the neighborhood and improve water quality in the Anacostia watershed. Today, WC Smith retains interest in the park and anticipates that the park will mitigate stormwater for the development of an adjacent multifamily property to be developed by the company.

Canal Park’s origins date to 1999, when WC Smith was acquiring properties in the neighborhood. At the time, the paved site was a parking lot for school buses, but it was once part of the Washington City Canal System that connected the Potomac and Anacostia rivers and ran through the National Mall. The park proposal later became a key part of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative and a demonstration project for the District’s Department of Energy & Environment.

To pursue a public/private partnership for the park construction, WC Smith formed the Canal Park Development Association (CPDA) in 2000, which ultimately secured the site from the city and led the development process. A design competition led by CPDA, along with the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation and the District’s deputy mayor for planning and economic development, chose OLIN as the design team to advance the project.

Given the site’s history and the ongoing water quality concerns with the Anacostia River (partially because of combined sewer overflow), water management was a top priority in the design competition. “The park naturally became a focal point of sustainability and a regional stormwater facility,” explains Brad Fennell, senior vice president of development at WC Smith. The potential for the site as a community and social hub also evolved as a number of catalytic developments occurred in the area, including the Washington Nationals ballpark, the U.S. Department of  Transportation headquarters, and the redevelopment of an adjacent public housing site.

Today, WC Smith maintains connections to the park, while the local business improvement district (BID), Capitol Riverfront, manages day-to-day maintenance and programming. WC Smith has continued development momentum around the park and anticipates using the water management capabilities of the park to adhere to the District’s on-site water retention requirements for the development of an adjacent parcel. “We are really  excited for the next ten years, when you will see more buildings fronting on the park and the development of new retail in the area,” says Fennell.

Innovative Water Management Features

  • Stormwater collection and reuse system. Stormwater that falls on site is collected and treated through a bioretention, ultraviolet disinfection, and filtration system that removes 100 percent of biological pollutants and reduces total suspended solids. Collected stormwater then meets up to 95 percent of the park’s needs for irrigation, its ice rink, and its fountain, saving an estimated 1.5 million gallons per year.
  • Rain gardens and bioretention tree pits. Rain gardens run along the eastern edge of the park, and captured rain is subsequently filtered and reused. Forty-six bioretention tree pits also filter out contaminants.
  • Cisterns. Two underground cisterns hold 80,000 gallons of water, in addition to the roughly 8,500 gallons that the rain gardens can hold.
  • Ice rink and water features. The ice rink and 42-jet fountain splash park are among the most popular aspects of the park—and their water needs are met entirely by stormwater.

Value Proposition

Canal Park has greatly contributed to the revival of the Capitol Riverfront neighborhood. Perceptions of the neighborhood have changed with this revitalization; for example, a survey by the BID found that 90 percent of local residents considered the area “clean and safe” in 2015, compared with 30 percent in 2009. For WC Smith, the investment in Canal Park has enhanced the value of adjacent properties, which now overlook a valuable and vibrant public amenity. The park’s ability to manage stormwater for a future adjacent development has been an added bonus.

Lessons Learned

  • Public/private partnerships can be excellent vehicles for delivering innovation in stormwater management. The Anacostia Waterfront Initiative provided the initial vision for the area’s revitalization, and Canal Park came to fruition through a public/private partnership with funds from tax increment financing and New Markets Tax Credits. Today, the Capitol Riverfront BID manages a robust program of activities that draw people to the park from both the neighborhood and the city at large. Fennell describes the BID’s work as contributing to the “energy that helps make the park a special place.”

“Canal Park is a popular meeting spot for residents, workers, and visitors. The project would not have been successful without the partnerships with private developers, the city and federal governments, and the Capitol Riverfront BID.” Brad Fennell, Senior Vice President of Development, WC Smith

  • Water management can inspire community engagement and local conservation. “The whole concept of environmental conservation in the park is what has captured people who live around here,” explains Janet Weston, the park manager at WC Smith. The design and development team proactively developed educational signage about the park’s stormwater management functions and has worked with the BID to get the message out to a wider audience.

Atlantic Wharf

Context

In 2007, developer BXP used the nation’s first green building standard, Article 37 of the Boston Municipal Zoning Code, to create Boston’s first sustainable high rise, Atlantic Wharf, which opened in 2011. Specifically, Article 37 incentivizes applicants with one Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) credit if they submit calculations for groundwater area absorption and retention rates. Atlantic Wharf is situated between the historic Fort Point Channel, renowned for the Boston Tea Party; the downtown Financial District, home to Boston’s financial centers; and the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a series of linear parks and gardens.  The building’s design preserves and integrates about 40 percent of the existing historic structures on the site and created 23,300 square feet of urban parks and plazas.

“We have been inspired by the mayor’s vision to make Boston the greenest city in the country and our customers’ commitment to a sustainable workplace,” Bryan Koop of BXP said at the LEED
plaque awards ceremony. “Atlantic Wharf is a model proving that development can be done with a conscious regard for the environment.”

Atlantic Wharf was certified as LEED Platinum shortly after its completion. BXP’s commitment to sustainability and historic preservation has been recognized by a number of award programs: Atlantic Wharf was a 2012 finalist for the ULI Global Awards for Excellence, received the 2012 Brick in Architecture Award, and won the 2012 International Facility Management Association Large Project Award.

Innovative Water Management Features

  • Rooftop garden. An 18,000-square-foot garden of modular, preplanted grids with native and adapted landscaping allows stormwater filtration, permits easy repair and maintenance access to the roof, reduces the heat-island effect, and minimizes impact on the microclimate. • Rainwater cistern. Seventy-one drainage points and over a half mile of piping funnel stormwater from the roof to a 40,000-gallon-capacity storage tank.
  • Automatic filtration system. Environmental pollutants in the stormwater are cleaned and collected from the rooftop rainwater harvesting system.
  • Rooftop cooling tower. Filtered stormwater is used for irrigating the rooftop garden and for replacing water lost because of evaporation, leaks, or discharge in the cooling system.
  • Public parks and plazas. Over 30 percent of the site area contains native and adapted planting, not only on the green roof, but also in the public Waterfront Plaza and promenade, where programming is provided throughout the year.
  • Water-efficient fixtures. Low-flow plumbing fixtures, such as shower heads, sinks, and dual-flush toilets, are included in all units, and similar fixtures are required for all office tenants.

Value Proposition

Atlantic Wharf’s LEED Platinum certification level has translated into significant operational savings and increased market demand for its commercial and residential units. Within the first year of
opening, Atlantic Wharf was 100 percent leased, outperforming the local market for office, residential, and retail spaces. By July 2012, residential rental rates were some of the highest in the city, averaging $4.24 per square foot, and all four restaurants reported higher-than-forecast sales. Atlantic Wharf’s resource- and water-efficient design has also led to cost and resource savings. Potable water use for irrigation has been reduced by more than 60 percent through native planting and rainwater harvesting systems on the rooftop and in the public spaces. The development’s rooftop cooling tower, which uses rainwater, saves 15 percent in process water compared to conventional HVAC systems.

Lessons Learned

  • Innovative water and environmental features can aid in leasing high-density developments and provide marketing value. Within its first year of opening, Atlantic Wharf was 100 percent leased and had some of the highest residential rents in the city.
  • Historic preservation can be achieved while realizing gains in water efficiency. Atlantic Wharf, Boston’s first green skyscraper, renovated and integrated 42 percent of the existing historic structures, including streetscapes and facades. The innovative water management system decreased potable water use for on-site irrigation by over 60 percent and saved 15 percent in process water in its cooling systems.
  • Public space is an asset for filtering stormwater runoff and increasing the marketability of a site. At Atlantic Wharf, 23,300 square feet of urban parks and plazas absorb and filter stormwater between the modern Financial District and the historic Fort Point Channel.

 

The Residences at La Cantera

Completed in 2014, the $47 million Residences at La Cantera is a four-story, 425,697-square-foot multifamily building with 323 apartments and 3,700 square feet of retail space. Located next to the Shops at La Cantera and the La Cantera Hill Country Resort, the Residences include amenities such as a clubhouse, cyber café, fitness center, resort-style pool, and Jacuzzi. The 150-acre master- planned community is being developed with 1 million square feet of Class A offices, upscale shops, restaurants, and lifestyle amenities and will be connected by a pedestrian greenway, a network of urban parks and natural areas, and a hike and bike trail.

USAA Real Estate Company and the Cambridge Development Group sought to provide an attractive resort landscape while respecting the need to conserve water. San Antonio periodically has instituted water-use restrictions in response to drought. During La Cantera planning in 2011 and 2012, Texas experienced one of its worst droughts ever, which it recovered from only in 2015 with excessive rains that briefly helped restore water levels. Just months later, San Antonio had water restrictions back in place, limiting the use of irrigation systems and water features.

Mitigating Risks

USAA worked with Looney Ricks Kiss, an architecture firm based in Memphis, Tennessee; Austin- based landscape architect J. Robert Anderson; and Dallas-based Jordan Foster Construction. With this team, USAA focused on resilient design and construction strategies for the building, which meets Texas Green certification standards. The developers’ planning and design choices have had the most effect on water conservation. They installed Energy Star–certified dishwashers and high-performance kitchen faucets and shower heads and located water heaters close to fixtures in most units, thus reducing the amount of water wasted while the resident waits for hot water.

The developers also addressed drought through the design of the landscape and its focal point, a 1.5-acre park that features an urban plaza, great lawn, adventure playground, pond, and picnic areas shaded by preserved live oak trees. They installed native and other drought-tolerant plants and mulched landscape beds at least four inches deep to retain moisture from irrigation.

They constructed a 10,000-gallon cistern next to the wet pond to store rooftop stormwater runoff and condensate from air conditioning equipment, which are piped from the buildings; this recycled water is then used to irrigate the park and renew the pond. The developers have begun focusing more on resilience metrics. For example, the cistern, which was sized to hold enough water to irrigate the park daily, was retrofitted to monitor water levels and the amount of water being added daily. Thus, they know that watering requirements range from 1,000 gallons a day to 4,000 gallons a day. Because the cistern collects up to 4,500 gallons a day (when all the units are filled) and is constantly being refilled, the owners know they can meet irrigation needs.

Creating Value

Protecting the value of the amenities of the park and the plantings—even under drought conditions— was key to USAA’s decision making. “Part of the motivation was being a responsible corporate citizen and ensuring that the landscaping and public park would be irrigated with limited use of potable water,” says Ghalib. The park alone cost $1.4 million to build and would cost at least $425,000 to replace if damaged by drought.

The value of the park translates to rent premiums for park views of between $35 and $50 a month per apartment, or $25,560 of additional annual revenue, resulting in about $500,000 in added asset value. Resilience savings so far include lower maintenance costs and an immediate beneficial effect on operating income. As Ghalib says: “We saw the cost efficiencies in cutting back on the water bills and being able to maintain the park through drought conditions and water restrictions by capturing water that otherwise gets wasted.”

The landscaping for the park requires between 30,000 gallons of water a month in winter and 118,700 gallons of water a month during the summer—a total annual water requirement of 878,400 gallons. On the basis of San Antonio Water Service’s 2015 water rates, water charges would total approximately $3,840 annually. Additional fees, including a service availability fee and a stormwater fee, would add $5,000 a year to the water bill. The Residences consequently save an estimated $8,840 in annual water charges by using the air-conditioning condensate and stormwater collection system to irrigate the landscape. The water recycling system also has marketing advantages, says Ghalib. “Whenever we tell tenants, residents, and visitors about the water reclamation, people receive it really well. It is definitely a distinguishing feature.”

USAA’s resilience efforts for the Residences at La Cantera are part of a company commitment to “build every asset as if we are going to own it long term,” says Ghalib. “With this one, we’re making sure every decision about materials and equipment makes sense for us and anyone else.”

“Drought in San Antonio is a way of life, and addressing that within the building design made total sense to us.”—Hailey Ghalib