2009 VA ASLA Awards

Analysis & Planning Professional - Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Hydrologic Master Plan

 

Honor Award 

Project:  Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden Hydrologic Master Plan
Landscape architect: Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Client: Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden
Consultants: Nitsch Engineering, OHK Environmental, Hydro Environmental

Supported by a grant from Henrico County, this study was undertaken to provide the 80-acre Lewis Ginter Botanic Garden (LGBG) in Richmond, Virginia with a series of sustainable strategies for its future design projects. As a critical public educational institution within the Chesapeake Bay watershed, LGBG should be setting the example for efficient and effective protection, preservation, and re-use of its precious water resources.

The study assessed LGBG within its immediate and larger watershed contexts, in order to understand where and how water moved to and from the site. It also examined the sub-watersheds within the site and various scales of water/drainage issues in order to present a holistic framework for water sustainability. The report offers numerous strategies and opportunities for LGBG to become a local and regional leader in the design, construction, and monitoring of demonstration gardens/landscapes for the citizenry to learn from and potentially apply to their own sites

This project highlights sustainability at multiple scales and provides a template for planning and design actions within the realm of a public institution. Of primary importance is the effort to meld the aesthetic values of designed places with the sustainable economic and ecologic values of water stewardship. The study suggests a wide, and therefore attainable, spectrum of water-preserving and watershed regenerating design strategies for improving an existing institutional landscape and restoring natural hydrological processes to an already developed site.

The study has also contributed substantially to increasing the awareness of the Garden's Administration and Board toward the hidden, buried, and/or neglected parts of their environment - especially in highlighting the several stream courses that have been either buried underground in pipes or significantly degraded by erosion and invasive species. With the Chesapeake Bay watershed in continuing decline, the recommendations offered by analysis and planning studies like the Hydrologic Master Plan for Lewis Ginter Botanic Garden are long overdue.

Jury comments:
- Excellent cohesive inventory
- Graphics are excellent and convey design intent effectively
- Design is clearly derived from analysis
- Sustainability is the focus and is appropriate to the site and client