The Anne Arundel Department of Public Works selected WGM as prime consultant with Annapolis Landscape Architects (ALA) serving as project landscape architect and Bay Engineering providing the civil engineering. ALA provided the landscape architectural site design for amenity elements such as the entry plaza, which includes blue glass aggregate paving representing water and reflecting the nautical theme of the building. Waves of pavers with reflective blue exposed glass set in unit paver patterns flow through the plaza and vehicular turnaround. A brick donor tribute pathway extends from the front door of the building to the parking lot.
A children’s reading circle in the form of monolithic twisted precast shapes provides outdoor learning opportunities.
The surrounding community and the City of Annapolis regulated and requested a native plant palette for the project. The resulting landscape is dominated by native shade trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plantings suitable for the numerous bioretention areas. A Mid-Atlantic woodland planting approach combining the preserved trees and introduced native plantings serves to increase biodiversity in Annapolis. Additionally, dispersed bioretention areas manage storm water and provide birds and other pollinators with food and cover.
Tree preservation was a guiding force in the site layout as the grove of majestic Sycamore trees was retained to create a sylvan park-like character and anchor the public street frontage. The library and all site work were completed in 2020.
This park is a joint project between Montgomery County Recreation, Libraries, and Parks. The playground connects the library and the community recreation center. It is richly designed to incorporate library and music theming as well as active play and sensory play. The entrance is a reading circle with the walls formed to resemble a bookshelf. The copings for the wall integrate quotes, and the wall ends integrate children’s book titles. Music is represented in the ground plane as a bass clef, a treble clef, and multiple musical instruments. Traditional and sensory play components make up the active play area.
Annapolis Landscape Architects (ALA) joined the AECOM/Zimmer Gunsul Frasca team for the new Public Health Command Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. ALA focused on the campus-wide planting design including plant selection based on native plants and plant associations appropriate to the site. Demonstration planting areas will highlight native perennial plants along walkways and near the entrance. View corridors for the entrance and approach to the new facility will be enhanced through strategic plant placement, and upland forest and wet meadow areas will be restored through planting.
Client: US Army Corps of Engineers
Architect: Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects
Engineer: KPFF and Dewberry
Germantown Town Center Urban Park is a civic space and focal point for the surrounding residential and business community. A braided walkway creatively accommodates the significant grade change across this eight-acre park in a way that is fun and ADA accessible. Sculpture formed with boulders and twisted stainless steel piping is integrated into the braid. An elliptical open space is the setting for oversized green chaise lounges. This park receives and filters runoff to improve water quality at the point of discharge from a forty-acre urban drainage area. Stormwater management is fully integrated into the park design with bio-retention, underground storage in the form of a large sand filter tank, specialized cascade outfalls and improvements to the pond and naturalized wetlands.
The sustainable site development at the Annapolis and Chesapeake Bay Visitors Center, locally referred to as Gotts Court, serves to create the first impression as visitors approach Annapolis and provides examples of green building techniques.
Located within the Annapolis Historic District, the site is designed as an urban, integrated, complete stormwater system with interconnected rain gardens (6) and recycled and refurbished materials as well as native plants. The entire parking area is permeable and collects and filters rainwater before discharging into the six rain gardens and on to a closed storm drain system. The Maryland Department of the Environment provided a $767,000 in grant funding for the project. Shelley Rentsch, Partner of Annapolis Landscape Architects led the design and construction phases of work.
Client: City of Annapolis
Engineer: Bay Engineering
Awards:
Cultural Landscape Study
Annapolis Landscape Architects (ALA) led the historic landscape context mapping and analysis for the Hammond-Harwood House Cultural Landscape Study.
ALA developed the following:
- Historic Context – series of annotated historic maps,
- Landscape Morphology – 1825, 1897, 1913, & 2018,
- Geometric Analysis & View Corridor,
- Horizontal Bands of Use,
- Periods of Landscape Significance,
- Current Conditions Assessment, and
- Preservation Treatment Plan.
Hammond-Harwood House, a 1774 Anglo-Palladian historic house museum and garden in downtown Annapolis, is a leading destination for Annapolis visitors seeking intact colonial-era house and garden museums open to the public.
Hammond-Harwood House is a significant property that actively contributes to the preservation tradition in Annapolis. The Cultural Landscape Study is designed to spur further research of historic landscape and streetscape preservation throughout the Annapolis Historic District. The Cultural Landscape Study will be the basis for review by the Annapolis Historic Preservation Commission when reviewing future proposed improvements to the historic and cultural landscape as it relates to the Hammond-Harwood House.
Client: Hammond-Harwood House
Cultural Landscape Report
Annapolis Landscape Architects (ALA) working with Louis Berger US, Inc., a WSP Company, on the Cultural Landscape Report prepared for the National Park Service (NPS) as required by the Section 106 compliance process for the proposed headquarters for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park (NHP) on the former Miller Lumber site in Williamsport, Maryland.
ALA prepared the following maps:
- Periods of Significance,
- Significant Views,
- Viewshed Images,
- Site Morphology,
- Existing Conditions Assessment,
- Preservation Treatment Plan.
The Miller Lumber Site is across the street from the Cushwa Basin area of the C&O Canal National Historic Park, which the NPS has been developing as an interpretive locus. The study area was comprised of one mile of the C&O Canal and approximately 25 acres.
The cultural landscape of the C&O Canal National Historic Park contributes to the Canal’s National Register of Historic Places nomination. The goal of this CLR is to facilitate the integration of the new headquarters and the Cushwa Basin area into a single destination for visitors while limiting the adverse effect on the cultural landscape.
The 185-mile-long Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park is located along the north bank of the Potomac River, starting in Washington, DC and ending in Cumberland, MD. The canal was built between 1828 and 1850, and it operated sporadically between floods until 1924. Significant themes found in this cultural landscape include history and archaeology, transportation, geology and geography, and human adaptation.
Client: Louis Berger US, Inc., a WSP Company
Annapolis Landscape Architects (ALA) teamed with Citadel DCA and EHT Traceries, Inc. on the “Treatment, Preservation, and Hazard Mitigation Plan” for the Charles Carroll House, located in Annapolis, Maryland.
ALA provided historic landscape analysis and mapping including the site morphology as well as documentation of periods of significance and key view sheds. A Preservation Treatment Plan was provided to guide the evolution of the garden set within the context of its history. The preservation of key character-defining features and the sculpted landform terraces and seawall built by enslaved people are explored in the study with site-specific recommendations and associated cost estimates. The visitors’ programming is set within a broad restoration and preservation context.
A four-acre site overlooking Spa Creek, the Carroll House ranks among the most architecturally and historically significant landmarks in the Colonial Annapolis Historic District. The Charles Carroll House is an internationally significant building and cultural landscape. The site’s historical significance is as the home of Charles Carroll, the settler and first Attorney General of Maryland; his son, Charles Carroll of Annapolis; and his son, Charles Carroll of Carrollton. Faced with both persecution and restrictions for his faith, Charles Carroll of Carrollton secured his family’s vision of personal, political, and religious freedom for all citizens when he became the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
This cultural landscape spans over 300 years as the site of the home of three generations of the Carroll family and has belonged to the Redemptorists of the Baltimore Province for the last 150 years.
Client: Charles Carroll House of Annapolis, Inc. (CCHA)
Historian: EHT Traceries, Inc.
Historic Architect: Citadel DCA
The Annapolis Landscape Architects team joined OLBN to address the grounds of two of the largest and most historically significant buildings on the National Mall, the headquarters of the United States Department of Agriculture. The north side of the Whitten Building fronts the Mall (NPS property) and was developed under the watchful eye of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., including well documented historic landscape architecture from the 1930s, which informed the proposed design of the People’s Garden. The scope of work includes revisiting the Olmsted Brothers’ design and applying an approach that addresses contemporary issues relevant to the local and national contexts. Overarching objectives include promoting agriculture, education and sustainability.
1724 F Street is an historic federal office building located in the heart of Washington, DC. The building and associated landscape are part of the General Service Administration’s First Impressions Program which rehabilitates historic buildings and landscapes that are rundown and not consistent with the mission of the high-level Federal Agency that they serve.
Annapolis Landscape Architects designed the garden to extend the symmetry of the building’s facade into the landscape. The sense of enclosure creates a foyer-like public gathering area for visitors as they enter and exit the building. Planting and hardscape material were upgraded to be more native and sustainable.
Client: General Services Administration
Architect: OLBN
