The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation selected H2M to design improvements to the existing Main Parking Area at the Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park.
H2M was selected to prepare the construction documents for this project. The existing main parking area was in a state of disrepair with deteriorating pavement and no drainage system to handle the stormwater runoff to the adjacent areas of the park. In addition, the parking area required reconfiguration to improve safety and overall utilization of the space. The main objectives of the redesign were to increase the number of parking spaces, provide a bus drop-off area and preserve as many of the existing specimen trees as practical. Another objective was to incorporate green infrastructure elements into the design, to reduce the stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces and allow it to infiltrate into the natural groundwater system.
H2M land surveyors performed a detailed field survey of the existing conditions, including the physical features, topographical information and tree locations. This survey was then utilized to develop a new parking configuration with a more efficient traffic circulation, better pedestrian circulation and required bus drop-off. In conjunction with the parking layout, we utilized various Best Management Practices such as vegetated swales between the rows of parking, permeable asphalt paving and permeable masonry pavers for the pedestrian walkways. These features will virtually eliminate the stormwater runoff from the parking areas.
