MEADVILLE, Pa. – Feb. 26, 2010 – “In Praise of Land & Water: Revisioning Stormwater on Federal Highways,” an innovative environmental art project at the I-79 interchange in Meadville, has received a Diamond Honor Award for excellence with water resources from the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies.
Pictured are, left to right, Perry Schweiss and Dave Piccolimini, representing Sucevic, Piccolomini and Kuchar Engineering; Amara Geffen, director of the Center for Economic and Environmental Development at Allegheny College; landscape architect Chris Brown; and Domenic Piccolomini and Mark Sharpe, also with SPK Engineering.
The award was presented to three of the partners on the project: the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT); Sucevic, Piccolomini and Kuchar Engineering (SP&K), PennDOT’s design consultant for the interchange project; and the Center for Economic and Environmental Development (CEED) at Allegheny College.
CEED served as a sub-consultant for the project design, which provides a national model for innovations in handling stormwater along federal highways. The project also demonstrates best practices in erosion control, water quality improvement and other environmental and aesthetic aspects of highway projects, with an emphasis on the use of recycled and repurposed materials.
The resulting site installation includes a series of sculptural check dams, infiltration pools and earthen mounds that channel stormwater from the interstate through a natural stormwater retention and infiltration scheme, while also demonstrating creative reuse of the concrete from demolished bridges and the use of native plantings to help improve water quality on site.
CEED director Amara Geffen, a professor of art at Allegheny College, headed up CEED’s work within the partnership, collaborating with artist Angelo Ciotti, landscape architect Chris Brown and environmental engineer Steve Halmi.
“It’s wonderful to see this project recognized by the American Council of Engineering Companies,” Geffen said, “and especially to know that the work we’ve done not only models innovative, interdisciplinary and aesthetic solutions for problems like stormwater runoff, erosion and poor water quality but also models creative partnerships that generate a real synergy as communities look at problems—and opportunities.”
The initial concept for “In Praise of Land & Water” had its germination in Geffen’s environmental art courses at Allegheny College. Geffen and her students have partnered with PennDOT since the late 1990s on public art projects such as “Read Between the Signs,” a 1200’ x 9’ sculptural relief along Route 322 at the gateway to Meadville. “Read Between the Signs” uses discarded road signs to depict images and forms that show the unique beauty and character of Meadville and its landscapes.
More information on the Center for Economic and Environmental Development can be found at ceed.allegheny.edu.
