Little Bennett Regional Park Wins Award

Company News | November 15, 2017

Little Bennett Regional Park Day Use Area-Phase I has received the top award for the Montgomery County Planning Department’s Design Excellence Award Program under the Open Space and Landscape Category. The Day Use Area Phase I, is the first portion of development associated with the overall Facility Planning for the 65-acre portion of the Little Bennet Regional Park located along Maryland Route 355 in in Clarksburg, Maryland.  The project also received the 2016 American Society of Landscape Architects Potomac Chapter President’s Award. 

The Phase I Day Use Area consists of a new roadway access into the park, a new parking area for both vehicles and horse trailers, and picnic areas.  The project include sustainable and environmental features to include permeable parking and walkway surfaces, meadow restoration, bioretention facility to treat stormwater run-off, convertible picnic tables, straw bale sculptures to serve as play areas and noise barriers and art in public places to include environmental art made of bamboo.

AMT collaborated with the M-NCPPC to prepare construction and permitting documents to include landscape architecture, civil engineering and surveying services. As project Prime Consultant, AMT oversaw the Geotechnical Engineer and also collaborated with specialized consultants to include Wetland Studies and Solutions for tree preservation and acoustical engineer for noise analysis of proposed the hay bale sculptures.

 Prior to the Phase I Day Use Area design, AMT also collaborated with the MNCPPC for the preparation of the facility plan for the entire 65-acre portion of the park. It was important that the park highlighted the natural beauty of the site, while providing smooth transitions between the human elements added and the natural elements preserved. The project’s gateway area welcomes visitors to the largest regional park in the area and offers passive recreational and interpretive opportunities to connect visitors to the beauty of the regional landscape.  The overall goal for M-NCPPC was to balance conservation with recreation and education.  Integration of stormwater management facilities into the overall park design was emphasized throughout the design process.  Stormwater Management facilities were effectively integrated into the park design using permeable pavements, roadside bio-swales, and Sycamore Ring micro-bioretention facilities. Sycamore Rings were a planned design element, and integrating of stormwater facilities into the rings satisfied ESD requirements, while also ensuring the long-term health of the trees.

 As prime consultant for the Facility Plan, AMT provided landscape architecture and civil engineering planning and design services to include facility plan documentation, 30% construction documents, material selections, cost estimates and public presentations.  AMT also oversaw and managed architectural design services for the development of the parks visitor center.  The preparation of the facility plan was a team effort that included collaboration with the MNCPPC PDCO, MNCPPC Department of Parks, Cutler Anderson Architects for the Visitor Center design, Symbiosis for Playscape design, Sandra Nam and Suzette Paulino for 3D modeling, Hush Acoustics for acoustical engineering and Garden Sight for graphic design.  The Facility Plan received the Honor Award in 2012 from the Potomac Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

 The complete facility plan can be viewed at:  https://www.montgomeryparks.org/uploads/docs/lb_facility_plan_report_000.pdf