Accommodating a Desert Climate

摘要

When it was constructed in 1998, the federal government demolished an existing park in Albuquerque to make room for the Domenici U.S. Courthouse. Shortly after, however, the site's plaza planting and fountain repeatedly leaked and flooded the parking garage below street level. Further, the extensive lawn required 3.5 million gallons of potable water each year for irrigation. A sustainable landscape retrofit by Rios Clemente Hale Studios (RCHS) served as a pilot project for the Sustainable SITES program. The new planting design replaced underutilized and inefficient lawns with native plants that thrive in the desert environment. More than 21,000 square feet of concrete paving were removed and reused to construct 2,000 linear feet of recycled concrete garden walls and curbs that redirect rainwater.