The Brandon Avenue Green Street helps inspire a new vision for public spaces — a vibrant, student-oriented, mixed-use community connected by a working, performative landscape. It is exceptional in its implementation of green infrastructure within a highly urban area through innovative combinations and technologies. The bioretention median and streetscape were both custom designed to address the challenges of placing the bioretention cells along the top of the ridgeline running down the street. Stormwater runoff from the street and building roofs is captured in the box conduits and storm inlets along the outer edge of the bioretention median and flows into vaults with pretreatment sumps and flow splitters to distribute water evenly among the multiple cell inlets. From the vaults, stormwater flows onto artistically designed dissipators that slow down the water and act as level spreaders for incoming runoff to each cell. The project presents an inspiring and environmentally beneficial alternative to the campus/urban lawn.
Among other project highlights are the 65 new trees along Brandon Avenue with additional trees proposed in connecting parks and landscape spaces, and the work to integrate mobility and accessibility goals into a space where an estimated 95 percent of students walk, bike, or use University buses.
