Los Angeles Wetland Park Receives Envision Platinum Award

The Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI) announced that the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park has earned the Envision Platinum award—the highest level attainable in the ISI Envision sustainable infrastructure rating system. The South Los Angeles Wetlands Park is the first project in Southern California to receive an ISI Envision award, and is only the second project to receive an Envision Platinum rating.

For the Envision presentation, the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works, Bureau of Engineering who led the project, represented by Interim City Engineer Deborah Weintraub, along with Psomas, the engineering consulting company who provided planning, design and management services, will accept the ISI Envision Platinum award on Jan. 31, 2014 at the Los Angeles City Council meeting.

The South L.A. Wetlands Park infrastructure project is located in an underserved area of the city. The project is a result of Proposition O, a program supported by a series of general obligation bonds valued at $500 million. The projects are being implemented to protect public health by removing pollution from the City’s watercourses, beaches, and the ocean in order to meet Federal Clean Water Act requirements.

“The South L.A. Wetland Park is a good example of an integrated engineering solution that successfully built consensus, captured and improved local urban runoff, and created a new neighborhood-revitalizing amenity. It represents what is possible when an owner and an engineer collaborate and redefine the paradigm of multi-benefit projects,” said Sean P. Vargas, Psomas principal and director of sustainability, and Envision sustainability professional and verifier.

The features of the project that helped the project score highly for sustainability within the Envision framework included remediation of the former Brownfield site, creation of new urban green space, and the design of the park to use urban runoff as a treatment-wetland sustaining resource. The South L.A. Wetlands project ranked very highly in many Envision credit areas including quality of life, leadership, resource allocation, natural world and climate and risk.

“As an early adopter of sustainable design, the LA City Public Works Bureau of Engineering welcomed the opportunity to pilot Envision with the ISI in the city of Los Angeles. Envision expands our over a decade long use of green rating systems for buildings to civil engineering projects. We believe this is urban design at its best,” said Deborah Weintraub, interim city engineer for the city of Los Angeles.

Source: American Public Works Assn.