Bush Center: Landscape

Stormwater collected from the northern landscape is stored below grade and slowly released into a bioswale, creating microclimates for plants

Native turf grass

The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum in Dallas is located within a 15-acre (6-hectare) urban park recreating a native prairie landscape. The park recycles all stormwater and serves as a demonstration project for using native landscape to conserve water. Stone seep

The lawn consists of a variety of native grasses, requiring less extensive watering and maintenance than a traditional lawn

Prairie

The 6 acres (2.4 hectares) of native prairie plant communities need no irrigation; this ecosystem provides habitat for butteries, birds and other indigenous wildlife

Surface runoff is captured and conveyed through swales, which improve the quality of water by ltering contaminants through specic plants

Bioswale Stone check dams

Large stone boulders slow the ow of surface water, preventing erosion

Wet prairie Wildflower meadow

A vibrant palette of wildowers will thrive in this sheltered location and blanket the meadow with a seasonal display of color

The wet prairie retains rainwater and allows it to lter slowly into the cistern below

Relocated site soils Irrigation cistern

Water lters through the wet prairie and is collected for irrigation, reducing the demand for potable water by 50 percent

Soil from building excavation is retained on site, creating distinctive landforms that direct surface runoff

Wet prairie overflow

The stormwater collection and distribution plan dramatically limits the need for water intake and outow into municipal systems Parking lot

Collecting rainwater

During extreme rain, overow from the wet prairie discharges into the highway stormwater system

Parking lot

1 Landscape absorbs
rainwater

Rainwater

Roof rainwater

2 Water passes through

bioswales, where contaminants are ltered

75

3 Bioswales direct water

to plants Seep Wet prairie Irrigation cistern

4 Surplus water is stored

in a 252,000-gallon (953,924 liter) cistern for reuse

Overow to highway stormwater system Rainwater Bioswale

Rainwater stands in a wet prairie on the grounds of the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum; G.J. McCarthy/Dallas Morning News

2013 MCT Source: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Graphic: Dallas Morning News