Site/civil engineering for new two-story police station house. Challenging site for stormwater control, use of vegetative swales. Goal of LEED Silver. 53,000 sf.

Weidlinger Associates was the site/civil engineer for a new two-story precinct station house at 970 Richmond Avenue. The building contains administrative spaces, interrogation rooms, prisoner detention areas, and a muster room, as well as dormitories, shower facilities, an equipment storage area, and locker rooms. It has an 85-car parking lot, rear yard, and open space.

Weidlinger designed and provided the LEED credit documentation for a stormwater conveyance system integrated with vegetative swales that control erosion and sedimentation. The shallow groundwater table prohibits the use of infiltration basins, and sewers are accessible only from Richmond Avenue. Weidlinger's novel system treats stormwater runoff before discharging it to the sewer. The vegetative swales are excellent sediment removers and effectively reduce the release rate to prevent sewer-system flooding.

The main challenges for stormwater management for this project were the amount of stormwater required for detention and the high rock elevation. The required detention volume is based on local regulations, and became very restrictive because there is only one sewer to discharge to Richmond Avenue. This caused the project's allowable discharge to be very small compared to the discharge generated by the developed conditions. In order to comply with these mandates, Weidlinger had to design shallow structural tanks in front of the entrance on Richmond Avenue that would be able to detain as much as 97,000 gallons of stormwater.

Completion Date: 2011
Location: Staten Island, New York
Owner or Client: NYC Department of Design and Construction
Prime Consultant(s): Rafael Vinoly