News & Articles

Special to The Georgia Engineer
January 7, 2003

Innovative Design Enhances Water Quality

By Robert T. Hughes

The issues surrounding water quantity and water quality will present Georgia’s state and local officials with some of their most difficult and costly policy decisions in 2003 and in years to come. According to a report adopted by the state’s water task force, developing and implementing a comprehensive state water management plan alone could take at least three years and cost as much as $18 million.

You might not have heard it mentioned in last fall’s campaign commercials, but make no mistake about it: water is at the forefront of the legislative agenda in Georgia. And our neighbors in Alabama and Florida are keeping a close eye on how we manage that part of our water supply that falls into the Chattahoochee and Flint River basins.

As our political leaders debate ownership of the water and how to best divide it among our homes, farms and factories, those of us in the private sector would be well advised to find ways to protect this most precious natural resource while planning for Georgia’s future growth.

At the landscape architecture firm of Hughes, Good O’Leary & Ryan (HGOR), we have had success in recent years with innovative solutions that pull together the firm’s philosophy of social, economic and environmental success. These practices have enabled us to incorporate useful amenities that actually enhance water quality into our office, residential and mixed use project designs in both urban and suburban areas.

Examples of these projects are Atlanta-area developments feature stylized designs that providing storm water management for flood control and first-flush water quality treatments that become front-door elements to Class A office developments.

At the Monarch Towers office complex, the 22,000-square foot “Lake Monarch” provides a much-needed urban park space in the rapidly developing Buckhead area of Atlanta. Located at the base of a 300,000-square foot office tower, the lake serves the dual purpose of providing storm water detention and water quality control. Walks, seating and artwork complete the strong design vocabulary of islands and waves contained in the lake itself.

        

At City View, the new world headquarters of Russell Corporation in the Vinings area, the arrival plaza water garden speaks to both Russell’s environmental ethic and presence as a global company. The water garden features seven custom orbed jets representing each of the continents, while plants filter and purify storm water runoff at this 800,000-square foot office tower.

    

Likewise, at the Verizon Wireless headquarters in Alpharetta, innovative design has created a two-tiered lake system that preserves five acres of hardwood bottomland, resulting in a natural wooden heart of the campus, expanded stream buffers and decreased heat island effect.

Currently, HGOR is developing designs for a two-area active recreation storm water park at the center of Glenwood Park, a mixed-use infill development, Greenstreet Properties on the old Circle K concrete plant site in east Atlanta. Plans call for first flush, flood storage and groundwater infiltration woven into open lawn area, native planting, seating and walks. The “storm water park” accomplishes three objectives:

  • Creates a safe environment by eliminating dangerous bank conditions and hazardous debris and rubble, providing useable open space and removing an overflowing sanitary line.

  • Improves water quality by eliminating untreated sewage, addressing first-flush pollutants, filtering surface runoff through biodetention pools, attenuating peak flow and reducing net flow with infiltration.

  • Provides a model for state and local governments through environmentally proactive remediation and the increased open space.

And, in the Hamilton Mill community of Gwinnett County, we are in the process of retrofitting an existing storm water detention facility into a water quality enhancement active recreation area. Native plants will filter storm water runoff, while the upper flood areas provide fields for play.

Beyond the local perspective to a regional scope, HGOR last year developed a five-acre infiltration storm water system at Colonial Properties’ Colonial Town Park in Orlando, Florida.

This project preserves 40 specimen live oaks while achieving a three-tiered infiltration system around an amphitheater, walks, seating and open lawn areas as the focal point for this 150-acre mixed use development. Developed as part of Phase I of the project, the “town park” sends a clear message of environmental quality for the complex, allowing it to outperform the area competition.

Colonial Town Park is a smart-growth, master-planned project encompassing office, retail and residential developments linked by a pedestrian-friendly parkway. Included are 1 million square feet of office space, 350,000 square feet of retail space and 400 units of multi-family housing.

Meandering walks with ample seating woven through mature live oaks and open spaces has developed this creative retention basin into the focal point of Colonial Town Park. Scenic views framed from within and around the park. Multi-level terrace with arbor, seating and data ports for outdoor communications. Located within the park, this stage is flanked by a sod panel amphitheater.

In addition to providing amenities and features that enhance water quality and storm water management, practices such as these also assist municipal governments by reducing the cost of treating storm water into clean, potable water and help maximize the dollars spent in building the projects. With proper design, the storm water detention ponds also add to the beauty of the facility and don’t have to be tucked away in an unseen corner of the development.

Water defines our environment because it shapes our land, determines our ecology and creates our climate. All of us have a human tendency to fail to address questions like how much water we have and how clean it is until they become a problem.

In Georgia, that time is now.


Robert T. Hughes is principal of HGOR, a nationally recognized landscape architectural and planning firm based in Atlanta.

HGOR is a nationally recognized firm that embraces the challenges of creating places of social value, economic sustainability and environmental stewardship. With a staff of planners, urban designers, landscape architects, environmental specialists and support staff, HGOR focuses on quality service and innovative solutions to complex design issues. For more information, visit www.hgor.com.

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