Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center Receives Certification

photo courtesy of Davis, Bowen & Friedel Inc.

The 15,000-square-foot Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Center has received LEED Silver certification. Andrews, Miller & Associates, a division of Davis, Bowen & Friedel Inc. (DBF), provided Site and Civil Engineering to prime architect GWWO for the 17-acre site located in Cambridge, Maryland.

The center incorporates a green roof, recycled materials, energy efficient lighting and water conservation techniques such as rain barrels. Walking paths and trails provide connectivity to the Visitor Center, memorial garden, informational kiosk, picnic pavilion and a connecting path to the adjacent trails within the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge.

DBF assisted with the U.S. Green Building Council LEED-certification process obtaining credits for construction activity pollution prevention, alternative transportation with reinforced gravel and turf parking spaces, and maximized the open space to be greater than the building footprint. The stormwater design utilized multiple sustainable techniques such as micro-bioretention areas, submerged gravel wetlands, grass filter strips and swales; and minimized impervious areas with the use of alternative paving materials. Ninety percent of the average rainfall is captured by these systems and treated. DBF also utilized an innovative wastewater technology, the Bermed Infiltration Pond, treating 30 percent of the wastewater generated on site to tertiary standards, thereby protecting the groundwater, woods, marshes and wetlands of the surrounding Blackwater Wildlife Refuge.

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