To better accommodate students and staff the College of St. Scholastica needed to make significant improvements to its parking. The college hired TKDA to provide parking area design, which included the use of rain gardens to provide storm water treatment and pervious pavement to minimize surface water runoff.
Chester Creek flows through the St. Scholastica campus in Duluth and is the receiving stream for all runoff from the new parking area. TKDA’s parking design included three separate parking areas stair-stepped down from the adjacent building elevation to the creek bed. The lower level parking area lies within 300 feet of Chester Creek and was constructed with 7,000 SF of pervious bituminous paving to reduce run-off and promote stormwater infiltration. For the surrounding landscape, TKDA used native grasses to stabilize the soil and create additional wildlife habitat. The landscape design also included shade trees to cool the parking lot surface.