Wimberley's Blue Hole Regional Park Will Test Sustainable Landscape Rating System

26 May 2010

Austin, TX – The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) announced the selection of Blue Hole Regional Park in Wimberley, Texas as one of the first landscapes to participate in a new program testing the nation's first rating system for green landscape design, construction and maintenance.

Blue Hole Regional Park will join more than 150 other projects from 34 states as well as from Canada, Iceland and Spain as part of an international pilot project program to evaluate the new SITES rating system for sustainable landscapes, with and without buildings. Sustainable landscapes can clean water, reduce pollution and restore habitats, while providing significant economic and social benefits to land owners and municipalities.

SITES, a partnership of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden, selected Blue Hole Regional Park based on its extensive environmentally friendly elements. Some highlights of these sustainable practices include: “green” stormwater systems such as rain gardens and bioswales, less than 10 percent impervious coverage, streambank restoration, water harvesting/reuse for toilets and irrigation, use of native materials and reuse of existing materials in construction, revegetatation and restoration of native plant species, full cut-off light system, nearly three miles of new trails, interpretive design elements, natural ventilation for the site's architecture, and only 3 percent of new disturbance with the project.

Blue Hole Regional Park joins the Smithsonian Institution's African American History & Culture museum, a New Orleans' project to absorb storm water on the streets of the Lower Ninth Ward flooded during Hurricane Katrina, and other pilot projects that include academic and corporate campuses, public parks with hundreds of acres, transportation corridors and private residences of less than one acre.

The design work at Blue Hole Regional Park is being completed by the Austin office of Design Workshop, an international landscape architecture, land planning, urban design and strategic services firm. The 126-acre site was developed to become Wimberley's first major city park and to ensure that this treasured swimming hole would not be turned into a private development. Like the other pilot projects, the site will test the point system for achieving different levels of site sustainability on a 250-point scale, and the performance benchmarks associated with specific credits within the Guidelines and Performance Benchmarks 2009.

In May 2005, the City of Wimberely completed the land acquisition portion of the Blue Hole project with grants and donations from Texas Parks and Wildlife, Hays County, the Lower Colorado River Authority, The Trust for Public Land, and numerous individuals. The park includes a natural cold spring that is part of the Cypress Creek corridor. The Blue Hole has been an icon of a natural swimming hole found in the Hill Country for decades. Along the Cypress Creek corridor are towering Bald Cypress trees that are believed to be more than 200 years old. Not a single Bald Cypress tree is being removed and a new generation of these trees will be planted as part of the restoration efforts.

About Design Workshop
Founded in 1969, Design Workshop is an international landscape architecture, land planning, urban design and strategic services firm with six offices in the U.S. and work spanning the globe. The firm has been recognized with over 150 prestigious awards for its work in new communities, urban centers, resorts, public parks, golf courses and residences. The firm's philosophy challenges the project team to equally integrate and balance artistic vision, environmental sensitivity, community values and sound economics to create unique places that stand the test of time. It refers to this approach as DW Legacy Design®.

About the Sustainable Sites Initiative
The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) is an interdisciplinary partnership led by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin and the United States Botanic Garden to transform land development and management practices with the nation's first voluntary rating system for sustainable landscapes, with or without buildings. As these guidelines become the accepted practices by professionals and nonprofessionals alike, they will transform the ways we design and build on the land, creating landscapes that nourish life for generations to come. For more information, visit www.sustainablesites.org.