GS&P’s Levi Sciara to Share Strategies for Sustainable Stormwater Management

8月 14, 2018

Gresham, Smith and Partners announces that Levi Sciara, P.E., a civil engineer in the firm’s Land Planning market, will present at the International Low Impact Development Conference on Aug. 14. He will share a case study on recent renovations at Nashville’s Hillsboro High School, highlighting how the GS&P project team modified the campus, which was first constructed in the 1950s, to comply with current stormwater ordinances. Additionally, GS&P welcomed conference attendees to the firm’s Nashville office for a rooftop reception yesterday evening. 

“I look forward to sharing how Low Impact Development practices allowed us to create a successful stormwater design at Hillsboro High School at this year’s International Low Impact Development Conference,” commented Sciara. “As cities continue to experience growth and space becomes limited, we have an opportunity to implement systems and practices, such as bioretention facilities, rain gardens, vegetated rooftops and permeable pavers, that manage our stormwater and reduce runoff, thus limiting the impact on our built areas.”

A summary of the presentation follows.

The Hillsboro High School Renovation: Planning for the Future
Presentation by Levi Sciara, P.E.

Hillsboro High School (HHS), located in Nashville, Tennessee has remained a well-regarded landmark in the Green Hills area since its opening in the mid-fifties. The recent population growth in Greens Hills has forced  Nashville Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) to increase the student body count of HHS. The increased number of students, along with the age of the campus, led MNPS to renovate existing buildings, construct additional buildings and provide a new site layout, including sports fields and paved surfaces.

Many new high schools with similar requirements would require a parcel of land in excess of 50 acres. However, HHS is landlocked, meaning the civil engineers were challenged to get creative to incorporate all of MNPS’ programing requirements while still meeting Metro Nashville’s stormwater ordinance.

This session will examine the design challenges the civil designers faced and how they kept the project under budget and in regulatory compliance with Metro Nashville’s current Low Impact Development standards. Sciara will share strategies used in planning and allocating space for bioretention areas, the different options of LID practices that were budgeted for in various phases of the project and what led to the morphing of the current site. Final session talking points will include an overview of the careful coordination between disciplines that led to a successful stormwater design.