University of Pennsylvania
OP-23: Stormwater Management

The Penn Stormwater Management Plan describes guidelines for managing existing infrastructure along with suggestion for new projects. Penn has implemented a myriad of stormwater best practices on campus along with green infrastructure, such as green roofs, bioswales, rainwater infiltration and detention basins and cisterns, rain gardens, and permeable paving to filter, capture and re-use rainwater. The Music Building, a LEED Gold Certified building, also collects rainwater from around the site and uses it for irrigation. Shoemaker Green is a new public commons, a welcoming open space of lawns, tree-lined walkways, and sitting areas. This new green space is both a destination and a pedestrian route from Locust and Smith Walks in the core of campus to the historic buildings surrounding the space and further eastward to Penn Park. www.pennconnects.upenn.edu/find_a_project/completed/completed_2010/music_building_overview.php Shoemaker Green sustainable site management improves water quality and minimizes runoff, reduces the effect of the urban heat island by greening large paved areas, restores biomass on site, increases local biodiversity, and improves the overall environment for the community. www.pennconnects.upenn.edu/find_a_project/completed/completed_2012/shoemaker_green_overview.php Penn Park, completed in 2011, increase the green/open space on campus by 20 percent. One of the appealing features of Penn Park is the return of vegetation and plant life to an area that was paved in asphalt and an industrial site for decades. Specific native and adaptive plants are used throughout the site to reduce irrigation requirements. Of the 548 trees found within Penn Park, some species include: catalpa, hackberry, swamp white oak, white pine, metasequoia, larch and balsam pine. These species were selected with specific attention to where they appear relative to their position on the land, with trees that prefer wet soil conditions planted in the lower levels, and hedgerow trees, which are more drought resistant, planted along the top of the landforms. A cistern was installed as part of Penn Park and can hold up to 300,000 gallons of rainwater that can be used for irrigation. www.pennconnects.upenn.edu/find_a_project/completed/completed_2011/penn_park_overview.php

Penn has several green (or vegetated) roofs on existing buildings, including: • Steinberg-Hall Dietrich Hall cafe, • Huntsman Hall, the main Wharton School building, • Hill Pavilion at the Vet School, • Horticulture Center at the Morris Arboretum, • Clair Fagin Hall at the School of Nursing, • English House College House • Golkin Hall at the Law School • The Krishna P. Singh Nanotechnology Center The green roofs serve multiple functions, but their primary environmental benefit is to retain stormwater and reduce the demands on Philadelphia’s combined storm and sewer sanitary system.

Underground cisterns were installed at Shoemaker Green, Penn Park, and the Singh Center for Nanotechnology.