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Architect's building in touch with environment
(by Joan Demirjian - November 12, 2009)
Architect's building in touch with environment
By JOAN DEMIRJIAN
When landscape architect Craig Cawrse set out to construct a new building for his business in South Russell, he also embarked on an effort to make it sensitive to the environment and to his residential neighbors.
Working with Rachel Webb, low-impact development coordinator at the Chagrin River Watershed Partners, Mr. Craig developed the property on East Washington Street, using new and "green" approaches to reduce and manage the storm-water from his property. It was a 2 1/2-year effort.
The parking lot around the new 6,800-square-foot building of Cawrse and Associates Inc., landscape architects and land planning, is built entirely with porous pavers.
The pavers allow rainwater and snow to seep back into the ground and into a nearby swale, instead of running off and flooding adjacent lands.
A rain garden next to the parking lot was planted with native plants and drains a portion of the roof runoff. The garden and plants, including sedges, hibiscus, and red-twig dogwoods, allow for the water to infiltrate the ground.
A vegetated bio-swale along the east side of the building was also created with a storm-water basin to drain the runoff water from the parking lot and a portion of the roof.
The work demonstrates innovative approaches to storm-water management in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Community Decentralized Demonstration Project, Ms. Webb said.
Mr. Cawrse said as part of the zoning requirements for building, South Russell Village required a conservation easement be placed on 1.4 acres of the site. The easement ensures that the land north of the building will forever be protected and never be developed in the future, he said. It will protect adjacent homes.
The porous paving blocks that look like bricks make up the 8,200-square-foot parking lot. They were set by hand on gravel and storm water seeps into the stone subbase, then flows into the detention basin.
Mr. Cawrse consulted with a geo-technical engineer on the design of the parking lot, and a separate consultant was used for the detention pond.
He said the porous parking lot is one of the first in the area. They are used more extensively in Europe and Canada, he said.
The rain garden also filters the roof water and releases it into the swale and the detention basin, Mr. Cawrse said. "We worked with two nurseries that specialize in native plants," he said.
Soil in the rain garden is made up of a highly absorbent mix of peat moss, topsoil and leaf humus, Mr. Cawrse said. The bio-swale was planted with special seed mixes and native plants as well.
Raised on a tree farm, Mr. Cawrse said he has always had an interest in conservation and keeping things natural. His brother Dave works for the U.S. Forest Service in Denver.
Mr. Cawrse first opened an office in South Russell in 1981 in the building in front of his new offices.
He has done land planning for nearby communities, including the Signature of Solon, Kensington Green, White Tale Run and Auburn Lakes. Currently, he is working for medical and health-care facilities, including University Hospitals and Cleveland Clinic. He is working on a "street scape" in Columbus and in Maple Heights.
Ms. Webb said the Cawrse project was awarded a grant to help defray the cost, and was one of several funded through a grant obtained by the watershed from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"We have funded four projects in the Chagrin River watershed," Ms. Webb said, including in Orange, Pepper Pike and Munson Township.
The goal is to demonstrate innovative storm-water management in Northeast Ohio, she said. "We were involved in the design, construction and monitoring," she said of the projects.
The U.S. Geological Survey, headquartered in Columbus, is monitoring the South Russell site for rainfall, temperatures, amount of water from the pavement and quality of storm water for the next two years.
Low-impact development and green infrastructure is becoming more popular, with more people aware of its benefits, Ms. Webb said.
"We want to showcase how useful this can be," she said. "We're trying to make it more widely accepted in the mainstream development community."
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