#shoemaker green

It's official! The University of Pennsylvania's Shoemaker Green has just received a 2014 ASLA Honor Award in the General Design Category. The project has transformed an underused corner of the campus into a high-performance, public amenity. It has proved that small urban spaces can contribute significantly to stormwater management, that native ecosystems can provide comparable benefits in the urban environment, and that necessary environmental and social monitoring can be done with minimal cost and effort. Shoemaker Green has become what green infrastructure seldom is: a monitored, high-performance landscape that provides timely feedback on what is working and what isn’t (photographs by Barrett Doherty). Click here for more information on this project .

A great article talking about “design experiments” and the need for landscape architects and designers to investigate what actually works in our designed spaces. Andropogon is engaging in such “design experiments” with projects like Shoemaker Green at U Penn and work at Drexel University. Look for the launch of our new research website this month to hear more about our “intelligent tinkerings!”

Watch this video to see how the SITES certified Shoemaker Green at the University of Pennsylvania works underneath all that College Green. And find out more about the importance of the project to Philadelphia's Green City, Clean Waters initiative in GreenSource.

Shoemaker has handled 3” of rain quite well from the remnants of Hurricane Andrea so far. Our monitoring equipment is hard at work and we hope to release preliminary data soon!

http://h2oblues.org/index.php

Watch the video of the official opening of Shoemaker Green at the University of Pennsylvania on September 20. Let us know if you like it. Andropogon designed the new public green with innovative storm water strategies, native plant and animal habitats, and recycled existing site materials. The project was also selected for the Community Design Collaborative Soak it Up! Exhibition on display from Monday, September 17 through Friday, October 19 at the Philadelphia Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch Street. Stop by and check it out!