Storm-Water Management
The green roof is expected to harvest almost 200,000 gallons of water each year; runoff from the Visitor Center roof, plazas, and hillside will not be discharged into the New York City storm sewer but rather retained onsite to be used during drier spells. Storm water is directed to collection basins in the plazas, percolates into specially engineered soils, and is taken up by plants that don’t mind “wet feet,” like switchgrass (Panicum virgatum), blue star (Amsonia species), and wild hyacinth (Camassia species), as well as cultivars of black gum and sweet bay trees (Nyssa sylvatica andMagnolia virginiana). The system of storm-water channels and planted depressions then carries any overflow to the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden.
Collectively, these measures will conserve significant amounts of water. Featured in the public entrance and interior event plazas, the two “rain garden” basins offer opportunity to educate the public about these strategies.