Smith Cardiovascular Research Building Landscape - Benches/Plants

Built: 2012

This LEED Gold project consists of a 140,000 sq. ft laboratory research building, a one acre central courtyard, and campus entry plaza. Sustainable principles helped shape the design. Evoking the site's historic salt marsh ecology, the design for the courtyard incorporates native grasses to filter and absorb stormwater runoff. The planting scheme uses low water and low maintenance plantings that provide critical habitat for urban wildlife, including a sod meadow composed of native grasses that do not require regular mowing. The entire courtyard space collects and detains water, reducing the volume of runoff from the site by 25%. 4,000 sq. ft of native plants in a tray system on the building's roof, along with the planting areas in the courtyard clean, filter, and slow runoff. In addition, an innovative irrigation system uses capillary action to apply water directly to plants' roots, using 85% less water than conventional overhead sprinklers and 60% less water than subsurface drip irrigation.