Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd NW at Hunter Place NW
Green Infrastructure Design Challenge
Project Overview
The City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management owns a vacant, 0.29-acre parcel near the junction of the three historic West Atlanta neighborhoods (Just Us, Ashview Heights, and Hunter Hills). Stormwater runoff from Hunter Place, Morris Brown Drive, and MLK Jr. Drive drains to a low area near the vacant lot, which routinely floods in small storm events.
The Starr Whitehouse team has designed a green infrastructure (GI) landscape that reduces and treats stormwater runoff with a bioretention system. A bioretention system is a vegetated shallow basin designed to intercept, store, and infiltrate stormwater runoff from impervious surfaces. Vegetation within bioretention areas helps to reduce the volume of runoff by using (i.e., transpiring) this collected rainwater. Bioretention systems are commonly installed in parks, yards, parking lots, road medians, or sidewalks. The bioretention design also provides meeting spaces and an outdoor classroom for adjacent communities. Other amenities include walking paths to link existing community resources such as Booker T. Washington High School, Washington Park Library, the Beltline, and historic Washington Park. In addition to the GI Challenge, further stormwater restoration will be completed concurrently on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd NW to improve road and neighborhood drainage.
The physical components of the site are only a small part of the project. With support from community representatives at West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and nearby Spelman College, the Starr Whitehouse team plans to partner with residents and institutions of West Atlanta to assist with building and maintaining the park. Spelman professors and students will also use the GI systems as a living laboratory. By observing and recording water quality and other metrics over time, we will be able to measure the positive impacts small spaces like MLK at Hunter Place can provide.
Winning Team
The winners of the GI Design Challenge for MLK at Hunter Place are comprised of design professionals, community representatives, and student representatives. Team members include:
- Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners, LLC
- Accura Engineering and Consulting Services, Inc.
- Nirajan Dhakal, PhD – Community Representative
Project Briefs
GI Design Challenge MLK/Hunter Place
