 |
| Kentucky Architecture |
Green building is often seen as a luxury. A lot of projects are capital-intensive, and take years to make up for their costs in energy savings. But as energy prices rise, sustainable buildings are starting to make even more fiscal sense for all types of buildings. The corner of Seventh and Liberty streets in downtown Louisville is loud and busy. A bus stops, letting off passengers.
Across the street, there’s an unexpected break from the concrete: a slightly unruly garden in front of the Metropolitan Sewer District’s downtown headquarters. “I had never seen a butterfly at the corner of Seventh and Liberty before we put this in and now we have butterflies and other things
that will be part of our outsidescape,” Brian Bingham says. He’s the Regulatory Services director for the MSD, and he’s standing in the agency’s rain garden, which is: “…a bio-infiltration area.
that will be part of our outsidescape,” Brian Bingham says. He’s the Regulatory Services director for the MSD, and he’s standing in the agency’s rain garden, which is: “…a bio-infiltration area.
We’ve excavated it out to make it an area that can hold water for a short period of time. We have amended the soils within that area to allow the water to be able to go through it instead of actually ponding in it. And then we’ve come back in with deep-rooted native plants and put them in,” Bingham says. The rain garden has been here since 2009, and it collects water that runs off the building’s roof and keeps it from ending up in the sewer.
 |
| Kentucky Architecture |
MSD is doing this because they have to—as a result of a settlement with the federal government, they’re required to reduce the amount of water that overflows the sewer and is discharged into the river.
Bingham says the rain garden makes fiscal sense, too. In case of flooding, there are huge storage tanks to hold sewer overflow, and those cost the MSD about 30 cents for every gallon they keep out of the river. The rain gardens—the one outside their building and others they’re working to build around Louisville—cost about 6 cents a gallon. And it’s these cost savings that make sense to other private and public entities.
See Also:
Comments
Post a Comment