2017 | APWA Colorado Chapter – Sustainability Award – Large Community

Stormwater runoff from SEMSWA’s office headquarters is captured and slowed through creatively engineered devices spread throughout the water quality demonstration garden. The playful umbrella sculpture and specially crafted landscape elements are integral to runoff collection and dispersal. The walkable demonstration area is meant to inspire those seeking ideas for increasing green infrastructure at their own sites.

Site features include a rain garden with decorative dry streambeds, living walls to filter roof drain water, cascading infiltration planter boxes, dryland demonstration garden, a boulder retaining wall and stone stormwater dispersal pond. Each of the bioswales treat water runoff with a different combination of subsurface treatments; growing media + underdrain + drainage media, only growing media + drainage media, and finally an underdrain + drainage media + decorative rock.