Located in the Redstone Mixed-Use Development at Kimball Junction, adjacent to the Swaner Nature Preserve, this 250 Unit Multifamily complex’s grounds were suffering from poor drainage and poor soils. The design team proposed mitigation solutions reducing maintenance costs while adding value through beautification, circulation and branding.

The largest contiguous space throughout the community is the streetscape. Using this linear feature to correct drainage issues while addressing Traffic calming created a unique aesthetic and contributed to snow removal solutions with a wider landscaped bio-swale.

The chicanes and bio-swale interplay to both create repetition and calm traffic.

While the community leadership and focus group praised the solution; the community at large struggled to accept such a foreign concept. Shared Streets, while providing opportunity for better snow removal and storm-water management appeared more dangerous than a standard sidewalk.

Creating bio-swales within the existing park strips was widely accepted as the best of both possible worlds. This will increase snow storage and provide better drainage for the streets base.

Creating curb cuts uphill of existing catch basins allows storm water to enter the Bio-swales. We left the existing piping in place as the backup for large storm events. A system of Weirs using Gabion Walls will slow the flow allowing for more volume and better percolation thus keeping pollutants out of Silver Creek.

Guided by the existing and proposed materials and the communities namesake, Fox Point, the design team fused color and texture by means of stainless steel lettering on a Cor-Ten field to create artistic signage supporting the re-branding of the community.

Many of the community’s foundation border shrubs are damaged in winter due to ice and snow saturation from water dripping under the eaves and rakes of the homes. Flipping this typical paradigm, our proposed layout replaces these shrubs with a gravel drip banding perimeter to further increase drainage and percolation opportunities. We replaced much of the lawns with lush herbaceous perennials that are sufficiently hardy to return year after year.

Situated in a Mountain upland ecosystem adjacent to the Swaner this site’s native vegetation would have been originally composed of Shrub and Grass. Sage, Willow and Dogwood are re-introduced and highly visible from the street, while Deschampsia, Bluestem and Rice-grass will populate the Bio-swales creating a more Native appeal.

The Design for this community was taken through Working Drawings and Permitting. Unfortunately, a change in leadership and budget objectives has placed the project on hold.

Our Project’s adaption of a “Woonerf” or Shared Street to an existing community has already won acclaim. Due to the elegantly combined solutions to water conservation, site circulation, snow storage, water run-off, beautification and habitat restoration, this project is featured in the 2018 Edition of Site Planning by MIT Press.