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EPA Headquarters Low Impact Development Demonstration Projects
In This Section
Visit the following pages to find out more about each of EPA Headquarters' Low Impact Development (LID) demonstration projects:
- Ariel Rios Building South Courtyard
- Constitution Avenue Entrance
- Garage Cisterns at EPA West Building
Ariel Rios Building South Courtyard
Project completed in December 2006
Location: The Ariel Rios Building is on 12th Street between Constitution Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC. The South Courtyard is accessible to EPA visitors.
Address: EPA Headquarters, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20004 
Plan
3-Dimensional Perspective Actual Perspective
Specifications:
- Site area: 8,600 sq. ft.
- Landscaped area: 6,400 sq. ft.
- Permeable paving: 564 sq. ft.
- Disconnected impervious pavement: 1,636 sq. ft.
- Bioretention cells: 280 sq. ft.
Objective:
The Ariel Rios South Courtyard serves as an outdoor classroom that includes opportunities for specialized exhibits. It also demonstrates how to integrate LID practices into a small, historical urban site.
Description:
The LID demonstration project at the Ariel Rios South Courtyard is designed to showcase the sustainable strategy of addressing targeted watershed goals and objectives by using LID stormwater management techniques. The South Courtyard project demonstrates a wide range of techniques within a small area. This is primarily a utilitarian area that includes a loading dock and building services parking, but it is highly visible from the staircase EPA staff and visitors use at the Ariel Rios South Building’s entrances.
LID practices used in the Courtyard include bioretention cells, permeable pavers, soil amendments, a cistern, and sustainable landscaping. The innovative techniques are integrated into the site design and create an inviting urban gathering place while reducing stormwater discharge.
Awards
In October 2007, the Ariel Rios South Courtyard development project was honored with a GSA Real Property Innovation Special Achievement Award from the U.S. General Services Administration for paving the way for future real property developments. - The Ariel Rios South Courtyard project garnered a 2007 Landscape Contractors Association Grand Award for Commercial Landscape Installation for EPA's contractor on the project, John Shorb Landscaping.
LID Components:
- Bioretention cells (also called rain gardens)
- Permeable concrete paths and blocks
- 1,128-gallon cistern for irrigation
- Soil amendments
- Sustainable landscaping
- Water collection runnels
- Land regrading/contouring
- High-efficiency irrigation system
Other Components:
- Recycled-content furniture
- Recycled farm tool signs
- Recycled glass artwork in cistern
- High efficiency lighting
- Recycled historic granite bench
- Historic fountain and paving (recirculating pump)
Benefits:
- Newly amended soils beneath the landscaped areas enhance water infiltration rates. Disconnecting impervious areas from the drainage system and directing flows to landscaped and lawn areas help reduce the volume of runoff and pollutants from the paved areas and roofs.
- Bioretention areas provide more than 400 cubic feet of stormwater storage volume.
- A 1,128-gallon cistern located beneath the courtyard stores rainwater for irrigation of onsite vegetation, reducing potable water use and stormwater runoff to the storm sewer.
- The cistern dome is both educational and artistically creative, exhibiting views of the water collection tank system while integrating design features and using 100 percent recycled glass.
- Outdoor furniture is constructed with 90 percent recycled-content material, and signs are made from recycled farm tool parts.
Constitution Avenue Entrances
Project completed in April 2005
Location: Constitution Avenue, NW, between 12th and 14th Streets, in Washington, DC.
Address: EPA Headquarters, 1200 Constitution Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20004
Constitution Avenue Entrance High Density Plastic Grid
Specifications:
- Bioretention cells: 1,264 sq. ft.
- High density plastic grid: 600 sq. ft.
Objective:
Constitution Avenue is a highly visible public area along Washington, DC's National Mall. This project is highly educational as both a self-guided and instructor-led demonstration area that shows how disconnection, storage, evaporation, and high-efficiency mechanical systems can be used to modify runoff processes and how sustainable plantings combined with high-efficiency irrigation systems can be used on a large scale. Educational signage and materials were installed at the site for self-guided tours.
Signage along Constitution Avenue
Description:
The LID demonstration project at Constitution Avenue is designed to demonstrate how LID strategies can be used in urban areas to manage stormwater in response to the Chesapeake Executive Council Directive No. 01-1: Managing Stormwater on State, Federal and District-Owned Lands and Facilities. The design incorporates a combination of conservation practices, strategic site design, pollution prevention, and distributed small-scale source control management practices that reduce the stormwater that would have otherwise been discharged into the combined sewer system.
LID Components:
- Bioretention cells (also called rain gardens)
- Soil amendments
- Sustainable landscaping
- Land regrading/contouring
- High efficiency irrigation
- High density plastic grid (grass stabilization material) with structural soil
Benefits:
- Bioretention areas demonstrate how runoff water quantity can be reduced and water quality enhanced by using the filtration capacity of newly amended soils. Runoff from disconnected pavement areas flows and infiltrates into surrounding soils.
- Bioretention cells were integrated into the existing planting beds for a seamless design. They are planted with sustainable, water-tolerant vegetation with similar height, texture, appearance, and growing season.
- The bioretention cells are graded and contoured so they have a 6- to 8-inch shallow depression with a layer of filtering soil on a bed of stone to store and filter water. They will provide more than 400 cubic feet of stormwater storage volume.
- The high density plastic grid system will provide structural support for high traffic pedestrian areas while maintaining porosity of the soil, protecting turf, and providing conduits for root growth.
Garage Cisterns at EPA West Building
Project completed fall 2008
Location: The EPA West Building is on the corner of Constitution Avenue, NW and 14th Street, NW in Washington, DC.
Address: EPA West Building, 1301 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20004
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| Diagram of garage cisterns at EPA West. Click on graphic for larger image. | Some of the six 1,000-gallon cisterns at EPA West, and the signs explaining them. |
Download a PDF of the signs displayed near the cisterns explaining the project (PDF) (2 pp., 741K)
Specifications:
- Cisterns: Six 1,000-gallon cisterns each measuring 6 feet in diameter.
- EPA West building irrigation requirements: 7,500 gallons satisfy the irrigation requirements for a week during summer months. Additional needs are supplemented with potable water.
Objective:
The landscaping at the EPA West Building, Constitution Avenue entrance, serves as an exhibit area to demonstrate several innovative features, including water conservation and planting techniques using low maintenance and sustainable materials.
Description:
The EPA West garage cisterns were designed to capture runoff from the Federal Triangle Complex roofs and reuse it for irrigation.
LID Components:
- Stormwater from the EPA West roof is collected and reused for landscape irrigation.
- The stormwater is conveyed through the West building in a series of downspouts prior to discharge into the municipal combined sewer system. Stormwater is intercepted from downspouts and diverted to cisterns installed in the West building parking garage.
- The cisterns store the collected stormwater and provide a reservoir of water for the EPA West irrigation system.
- The system supplies water to the irrigation system for the landscaping at the Constitution Avenue entrance.
- Six 6-foot diameter cisterns were installed in a row. The last tank includes a pump that is used to supply irrigation water to the landscaped areas.
- Stormwater is collected by gravity from downspouts accessible in the garage ceiling and is conveyed to the cisterns. An energy-efficient pump extracts the cistern water to the irrigation lines and is supplemented by potable water when the cistern water demand is insufficient.
Benefits:
- Reduces runoff that would otherwise be discharged into the combined sewer system.
- Saves valuable environmental resources and building operating costs by decreasing the use of potable water.