The Challenge
RETTEW’s client for this project was an architectural firm that was contracted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to design a new welcome center, an adjacent visitor parking area, and a new park-and-ride facility at the existing welcome center at Delaware Water Gap. The site, located along the Interstate 80 corridor in Smithfield Township, Monroe County, posed many engineering related challenges because the Commonwealth required that the facility achieve a U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver certification. Achieving LEED Silver certification would ensure that the site was measured against the highest performance standards and designed with a commitment to environmental sustainability. However, numerous transportation, stormwater, and sewer related issues, on top of stringent LEED requirements, posed daunting tasks for RETTEW and its client.
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Our Answer
The Delaware Water Gap Welcome Center efficiently recycles stormwater by featuring a complex stormwater collection and treatment system, which includes stormwater harvesting and gray-water recycling, as well as a vegetated (green) roof atop the 22,000 square foot facility. RETTEW addressed difficult sewer disposal issues through an innovative sewer conveyance system, which runs underneath Interstate 80, an active Pennsylvania railroad line, and a bridge that crosses over a high-quality creek, transporting the sewerage offsite to an existing treatment facility. RETTEW’s natural sciences team preserved natural vegetation and habitat and limited potable water use for landscape irrigation. Additional design solutions included planting native vegetation to restore a minimum of 50 percent of the open area of the site, and realigning the Interstate 80 interchange. RETTEW’s design succeeded at securing LEED Silver certification.
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